When HIV enters a person's body, it destroys a particular white blood cell called T lymphocyte, or T cell. T cells fight germs in the body. When HIV destroys the T cells, the HIV multiplies inside the body. A person who is HIV positive is infected with the virus. The HIV positive person does not have AIDS. It would take years for the HIV virus to kill enough T cells before AIDS.

About half of the people with the HIV infection will get AIDS within ten years. When AIDS takes over, it damages the body's immune system. A person with a damaged immune system will develop infections that would affect a person with a healthy immune system. A person's body with AIDS cannot defend itself.

AIDS is transmitted when HIV is spread from the inside of one body to the inside of another. The virus can do this in three ways:

• Unprotected sexual intercourse with an HIV infected person
• When needles are shared with an HIV infected person
• From mother to child, before or after birth

If you do not use intravenous drugs and you're not sexually active, you don't have to worry about HIV or AIDS. If you decide to have sex in the future, always protect yourself by using condoms. There is no way for you to tell if a person is infected with HIV.

In the world today, AIDS remains an epidemic, which means that the virus affects a large number of people and spreads rapidly. Right now, around 30 million people are affected wit HIV. In America alone, there are 30,000 people between the ages of 13 and 24 who have developed AIDS. There are about 3,600 kids under the age of 13 who have AIDS also. Overall, 320,000 Americans today live with AIDS.