What is HIV/AIDS? Do you Know ? !!  
HIV is the virus that can cause AIDS.

It is the abbreviation of ‘Human Immuno Deficiency Virus’. It breaks down your body’s resistance. The white blood cells, which we all have to defend ourselves against illnesses, are broken down by HIV. You cannot die from HIV itself, but if you have it then you can become critically ill from viruses and bacteria which wouldn’t normally have serious effects.
What is AIDS?

The word AIDS is used only when the immune system of someone living with HIV is so broken down that serious infections occur. AIDS is an abbreviation of ‘Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome’. The last three words, ‘Immuno Deficiency Syndrome’ indicate that AIDS is not one disease, but a ‘syndrome’, a ‘compound of diseases’ which are caused by ‘damage to the immune system’.

Somebody with AIDS therefore always has HIV, is ‘HIV positive’. But being HIV positive doesn’t necessarily mean you have AIDS.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Egypt appears to be an early stage and Egypt is classified as a low prevalence country estimates from the Ministry of Health and Population (National AIDS program) at 31-12-2002 (while they are 3845 case in the end of 2003) suggested that number of symptomatic AIDS cases is 368 while the number of asymptomatic HIV cases is 1343 and total cases is 1711.However, Egypt will continue to face a serious challenge in keeping that low prevalence of HIV/AIDS that total number of people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003 is about 40 million cases according to UNAIDS estimations with new 5 million cases in 2003 and every year it is estimated that over 2.6 million young contract the virus through the sexual route or through injection drug use .young people are not only disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS ; they are also particularly vulnerable to HIV infection because they lack access to sexual and reproductive health information, education and services (UNFPA,2001).

Having a picture of the HIV/AIDS problem and control activities is essential for planning a working plan for HIV/AIDS prevention, data of HIV infection and AIDS cases are very difficult to obtain analyze and interpret, there are many different clinical manifestations of the diseases, and because of it is long incubation period cases only provide a small segment of the total picture. it is important to understand the limitation of data about HIV/AIDS for planning ,implementing ,monitoring and evaluation of the national AIDS program.
The first case of HIV in Egypt was reported in 1986. And AIDS patient quarantined at local hospital was shot dead by security guard during and attempt to escape. Another AIDS patient at the same hospital had her baby delivered by a cleaner when physicians and nurses on duty refused to touch her (Preble, 1996).

Epidemiological data:- Present situation: more than 5.7 millions Egyptians had been screened between 1986 and Sept 2002 in addition to screening 750.000 blood unit yearly according to ministry of health, 2003 the AIDS cases are 368 and the a symptomatic HIV are 1343 cases with total of 1711 cases. However, UNAIDS/WHO estimates put the number by the end of 2001 at 8.000 patients living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS/WHO Epidemiological fact sheet 2002).

Ministry of Health and Population gave an account of AIDS cases by mood of transmission methods from 1986-june 2002 as follows Among all reported infections, 43% occurred through heterosexual contact, and 23 through homosexuality, other modes of transmission include unsafe injections and blood transfusions is 18%.More than 12% of the cases are attributed to unknown or intractable modes of transmission according to National AIDS program surveillance data.
In 1994 a study of Intravenous drugs users in CAIRO found that 8% were infected with HIV between them, however, in 1993, 1994 and 1996 none of IV drug users surveyed at a drug treatment center in ALEXANDRIA were HIV positive. In 1987-88, 07 percent among STDs patients were HIV positive; in 1993, 03 percent were infected. In 1994, there was no evidence of infection among STDs patients attending STD clinics in ALEXANRIA and ASSIUT. In 2003, a screening for a large number of pregnant women proved that there was no single infected case (NAP 2003)