!AIDS AIDS is an acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. It is a disease that causes a severe loss of the body's cellular immunity resulting in greatly reduced body's power of resistance to infection and malignancy. It is effected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is a retrovirus that infects cells of the immune system, destroying or impairing their function. Incubation period for HIV may be long, but it is invariably fatal in its fully developed stage. As the infection progresses, the immune system becomes weaker, and the person becomes more susceptible to infections. The most advanced stage of HIV infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It can take 10-15 years for an HIV-infected person to develop AIDS; antiretroviral drugs can slow down the process even further. HIV is transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse (anal or vaginal), transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing of contaminated needles, and between a mother and her infant during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. !!History This disease was first identified in the early 1980s. It spread very fast and now affects millions of people world over. Though the disease first spread among homosexuals, intravenous drug users, and recipients of infected blood through blood transfusion, it is now found spreading even through heterosexual contacts, causing great concern to the world community. It has become an epidemic in certain parts of Africa.