Ah, I see now what he meant. Keith A (sorry I called you Mr Hertford earlier)seems to confuse matters. I am not expressing a view as to whether this is intentional or not.)

Confusing symptoms of HIV + (fever, general listlessness and not dissimilar to glandular fever) in medium to late stage is not a path to death? It is a long time since treated HIV has led to AIDS in The UK.

Later stage can lead to AIDS. AIDS is sometimes referred to as late stage HIV, which is an unfortunate title, much abused by those who wish to politicise this condition. AIDS is also not fatal, but will allow fatal conditions to flourish, such as multi drug resistant tuberculosis, and the eventual cause of death, as with most cancers for that matter, being pneumonia.

The symptoms of HIV become apparent very early on, and although not always deemed as worrying if you are the sort to battle through colds and flu, lead to a change in lifestyle, not death if caught early enough.

Thats all I have to say on the matter. It is what the BNF says and as a SpR, I work to it, just like every doctor in The UK.

This social networking stuff is very interesting. I had no idea how much ignorance is out there. I may even stop being cynical about the drives in health promotion, as when I was a child, HIV education was all the rage and has taken a back seat in recent years, allowing ignorance to bcome perceived fact.