AIDS , HIV positive , HIV Negative, Full Blown AIDS?

I am confused with the terminology, If you don't have AIDS are you HIV negative? If you have AIDS then you are positive, so where does the "full blown" come in ?

HIV is the virus that can cause AIDS. If someone take a HIV test and the Eliza test is done and non reactive the person is considered HIV negative at that time- if there are concerns another test should be done with in three months AND the person should use protection for the 3 months. If an Eliza test comes back positive, then a confirmatory test (Western Blot) must be done to be sure the person is HIV+.

May people use HIV and AIDS as interchangeable- they are not. If the person that is HIV+ t-cell (or CD4 cell) drop below a count of 200 they are diagnosed with AIDS, when this happens some people say they have Full Blown AIDS, it's a term used.

HIV is the name of the virus. (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)

AIDS is the disease that virus causes. (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)

If you're HIV positive, it means you are infected with the virus, or at least test positive for it. Likely you have it if you test positive. At this point, you are otherwise perfectly healthy, and feel fine. When you start getting sick, that's the AIDS kicking in.

You can be HIV positive and not have AIDS. Some HIV positive people have never developed AIDS, even after a dozen or more years. Some HIV positive people develop AIDS extremely quickly, even with treatment.

You can't have AIDS without being HIV positive. HIV is what causes AIDS.

When the virus overwhelms your ability to keep it in check (either naturally or with medication), your immune system will weaken, leaving you open to other infections which normally your immune system would fight off. This is AIDS, the weakened immune system bit. HIV can develop into AIDS after only a few months, or it may take 20 years.

Once you have AIDS, you get sick from nearly anything, and can die from simple colds and obscure, opportunistic diseases most people have never heard of. When your body can't fight off anything, that's full-blown AIDS - and you're in trouble.

Treatment for full-blown AIDS is not particularly effective past a year or two. The more successful, common treatments involve medications which keep HIV from becoming AIDS for as long as possible. Once you develop full-blown AIDS, you're likely gonna die soon. A couple of years or so, that's the most you can "hope" for, and they won't be pleasant.

HIV-negative: no antibodies have been produced.
HIV-positive: antibodies have been produced after infection with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). To help eliminate the risk of a false-positive HIV screening test, a confirmatory test (Western Blot) is run. If the result of the WB is inconclusive, an HIV RNA PCR (viral load) may be run as well.
AIDS: when an HIV-positive person's CD4+ (a specific type of white blood cell) count falls below 200 / ml. The term "full-blown AIDS" isn't used anymore, as there's no such thing as a person with "half-blown" AIDS. Once a person is diagnosed with AIDS, that person carries the diagnosis forever, even if the CD4+ count rises over 200 / ml.

And, contrary to the others' answers, many, many people are living longer than 2-3 years after being diagnosed.