HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system in its host and causes AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV (or Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is transmitted through sexual contact, infected blood or from a mother to child through pregnancy or breast-feeding. While the early cases of AIDS in the 1980s were mostly white gay men, the face of the epidemic has changed. AIDS has become a Black disease, mostly impacting gay and bisexual men and women but also heterosexual man as well. There is no cure for HIV/AIDS, however there are medications that drastically increase life expectancy of those infected.