HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) attacks the cells fighting infections in the human body thereby making people more vulnerable to attacks by other infections. Contact with an infected person through bodily fluids which occurs mostly while indulging in unprotected sex (sexual contact without the use of condoms or medicines that prevent HIV), or the sharing of injection drug equipment are the causes of HIV spread. A person infected by HIV suffers AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) which if left untreated proves fatal.

In the early stages, it is not an auto-immune disease and the body’s immune system is capable of fighting off the infection to protect itself from diseases. The virus gets into our bodies from an outside source destroying our immune system’s strength and its efficiency to protect ourselves from attacks by various diseases. AIDS doesn’t spread through mere physical contact. It’s only through contact with the infected blood or body fluids of a person with HIV that AIDS can spread.