HIV Symptoms

HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, is a sexually transmitted disease that assails the immune system. The virus attacks your CD4 cells (or T4 cells), which are necessary to fight off illnesses. Eventually, the virus overwhelms the CD4 cells and your body becomes unable to fight off diseases and infections. Once your body's CD4 cell count falls below 200 per cubic millimeter of blood, and/or an opportunistic infection takes hold of your weakened immune system, you will be diagnosed with AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Symptoms of HIV vary according to what stage of the infection you are in and only HIV testing can tell you if you have the disease.