HIV,
AIDS, STD
What do they mean?
Grades:
6 through 12
This activity will help you understand the meaning of certain words, like STD, AIDS and HIV. Knowing these words will help you understand how you can protect yourself from HIV/STD.
Read the
story A. Answer the question.
Story A
Maria wasn't feeling well. She had been losing weight and always seemed
out of breath when going up stairs.
Her neck was swollen and she had a dry cough.
She decided to go to the doctor to see what was wrong. The doctor examined her and did some tests and asked her co come back in two weeks time. When she came back the doctor said to her, "Maria, the tests that I did show that you have an illness called AIDS which is caused by a very small germ (virus) call HIV. You may have been more likely to get infected with HIV because you also have another STD called gonorrhea."
Maria wanted
to know what all these words meant and how serious they were. Can you
help her?
From B pick what you think are the right words for STD, AIDS, HIV and gonorrhea, and match the correct definition with each box in C.
B:
A virus that weakens the defense system, allowing other diseases to enter the body.
A type of STD that may damage reproductive organs.
Illnesses that occur when the body's defense system is weakened.
Diseases
that are spread by sexual contact.
C:
AIDS:
HIV:
STD:
Gonorrhea:
Copyright
UNAIDS 1999