What is AIDS?

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an illness that impairs the body's ability to fight infection, making the body extremely susceptible to life-threatening disease.

Why Must We Know?

Because everyone is a candidate to contract the virus. No one is immune to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Men can get it. Women can get it. Children can get it. It's very important to be informed on how the virus is passed from person to person. It's just as critical to understand how you don't get AIDS, in order to lessen irrational fear and misunderstanding.

Some disturbing facts:

• The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1,000 to 2,000 babies are born every year with HIV.
• Texas has the highest teen pregnancy in the United States. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world.
• In the United States, AIDS is the leading cause of death for men and women between the ages of 25-44.
• More Americans have died of AIDS than have died in the Gulf, Vietnam and Korean wars combined. By the end of this decade, more Americans will have lost their lives to AIDS than in all the wars in U.S. history.
• One our of every 300 Americans is infected with it.
• An infected woman who is pregnant has a one in three chance of giving it to her child.
• And it's preventable.

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