Many years ago, Fauci took over the AIDS narrative, circumventing standard peer reviewed research by directly announcing to the public (via press briefings) that HIV causes AIDS. Technically, HIV is merely correlated with AIDS, along with hundreds of other pathogens. The underlying cause of AIDS is chronic viral / pathogen load resulting from unhealthy life choices. Big Science and Big Pharma can’t profit from that, so Fauci made HIV the boogeyman for the focus of massive research programs and treatments. Fauci has been a snake his whole life.
There actually is no such thing as AIDS. Just stages of HIV infection similar to the cancer stages. Once at the max stage/HIV count in the blood the virus has eradicated your immune cells you you die from common colds the body usually doesn't even notice, let alone give symptoms for. So you never 'get AIDS' like it is a new disease, it was just confusion back in the day, you just gradually get worse symptoms of HIV. It is all HIV. The term AIDS has been falling out of practice but is still confusingly around.
This is not correct. AIDS status is not analogous to a cancer stage. Cancer staging refers to the spread of cancer throughout the body with increasing involvement of various organ systems. By contrast, HIV can be spread into multiple organ systems WITHOUT the immune system having entered AIDS status.
When HIV destroys enough CD4 cells that the CD4 count falls <200 cells/mm3, a person enters AIDS status (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)-- the name AIDS itself refers to the health of the immune system, not the organ involvement of the virus (as in cancer). At this stage, not only is the HIV viral load usually very high, but the immune system is also very low. When in AIDS, a person can contract multiple other infections that a healthy immune system can fight off. So a person in AIDS status might have Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia and toxoplasmosis and cytomeglovirus and Kaposi sarcoma (and on and on). These are also NOT HIV but additional infections that the immune system can no longer fight.
To be clear- the term "AIDS" is absolutely still used. It's just that most people diagnosed with HIV are on working antiretroviral therapy (ART) that keeps the HIV from destroying CD4 cells. Most people living with HIV in the US are "immune reconstituted"-- their CD4 cells are just as high as an uninfected person--but they must keep taking ART to keep the virus from replicating.
HIV does not cause AIDS.
Many years ago, Fauci took over the AIDS narrative, circumventing standard peer reviewed research by directly announcing to the public (via press briefings) that HIV causes AIDS. Technically, HIV is merely correlated with AIDS, along with hundreds of other pathogens. The underlying cause of AIDS is chronic viral / pathogen load resulting from unhealthy life choices. Big Science and Big Pharma can’t profit from that, so Fauci made HIV the boogeyman for the focus of massive research programs and treatments. Fauci has been a snake his whole life.
There actually is no such thing as AIDS. Just stages of HIV infection similar to the cancer stages. Once at the max stage/HIV count in the blood the virus has eradicated your immune cells you you die from common colds the body usually doesn't even notice, let alone give symptoms for. So you never 'get AIDS' like it is a new disease, it was just confusion back in the day, you just gradually get worse symptoms of HIV. It is all HIV. The term AIDS has been falling out of practice but is still confusingly around.
This is not correct. AIDS status is not analogous to a cancer stage. Cancer staging refers to the spread of cancer throughout the body with increasing involvement of various organ systems. By contrast, HIV can be spread into multiple organ systems WITHOUT the immune system having entered AIDS status.
When HIV destroys enough CD4 cells that the CD4 count falls <200 cells/mm3, a person enters AIDS status (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)-- the name AIDS itself refers to the health of the immune system, not the organ involvement of the virus (as in cancer). At this stage, not only is the HIV viral load usually very high, but the immune system is also very low. When in AIDS, a person can contract multiple other infections that a healthy immune system can fight off. So a person in AIDS status might have Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia and toxoplasmosis and cytomeglovirus and Kaposi sarcoma (and on and on). These are also NOT HIV but additional infections that the immune system can no longer fight.
To be clear- the term "AIDS" is absolutely still used. It's just that most people diagnosed with HIV are on working antiretroviral therapy (ART) that keeps the HIV from destroying CD4 cells. Most people living with HIV in the US are "immune reconstituted"-- their CD4 cells are just as high as an uninfected person--but they must keep taking ART to keep the virus from replicating.