Whats the diffrence in being hiv possitive and having aids?

Me and my girlfriend were recently watchin t.v and we heard that there was a diffrence between having aids and being hiv possitive i thought that they were both the same thing? Were confused

HIV is the virus that can lead to AIDS. HIV damages the immune system by destroying the cells that help us fight infections (CD4 or Tcells). When this CD4 count drops to 200 or below, diagnosis changes from HIV+ to AIDS. This is the stage in which the body is not able to fight off other infections, such as colds, flu, and pneumonia. In a person with a healthy immune system, these illnesses would have little or no effect. These infections could be deadly in a person who has a damaged immune system. There is treatment, but no cure.

Basically if you are HIV positive it shows you are carrying the virus which causes AIDS. The Virus will develop into an illness which attacks your immune system, but you can have the virus in your system for a number of years without developing the condition, especially if you have drugs to control it.
Ultimately though with the virus you are highly likely to develop the disease.
Hope this explains it for you.

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. This is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is different from most other viruses because it attacks the immune system. The immune system gives our bodies the ability to fight infections. HIV finds and destroys a type of white blood cell (T cells or CD4 cells) that the immune system must have to fight disease.

AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. It can take years for a person infected with HIV, even without treatment, to reach this stage. Having AIDS means that the virus has weakened the immune system to the point at which the body has a difficult time fighting infections. When someone has one or more of these infections and a low number of T cells, he or she has AIDS.

http://www.aids.gov/basic/overview/index...

The answer is that the difference between HIV and AIDS depends where you live.

In the United States, if you are HIV+ and your CD4 cells drop below a certain level, you are said to have AIDS.

In Canada if you are HIV+ and develop and opportunistic infection you are said to have AIDS.

So what happens to people who get sick, but get better... do they still have AIDS or HIV? What about people who have a few CD4 cells but then bounce back up? There is still much discussion over language.

You can take great care of yourself, have a healthy positive outlook but still get sick. Progressing from HIV to AIDS generally takes years.

If you have HIV, you can somewhat control the disease. Later on, if it's not taken care of properly, it will turn into AIDS. AIDS is pretty much a death sentence.

hiv is the undeveloped stage when you only have the virus, it kills your immune system off, aids is when you have no immune system left and your vulnerable to all illnesses

hiv is the disease that everyone starts at and it means that you still have 80% of you immune system in tact. aids is the more advanced state of the disease that means that you have less than 80%

HIV is the viruse you carry when u get the disease from someone later on if you dont take care of the illness properly it can develop into aids, then your screwed.

U die faster with AIDS. HIV u can live a long time with the right medicines