It is very difficult to say with certainty how long HIV will take to cause AIDS. On average (median), it takes more than 10 years for HIV to progress to AIDS. The time it takes is different for everyone, and depends on many things, including the health and lifestyle of the person, the strength of his or her immune system, and other factors such as a person's age and immunity levels to other diseases. Another factor affecting how long HIV takes to cause AIDS is the growing effectiveness of the antiretroviral drugs that slow the spread of HIV in the body. As these drugs improve, people who are treated for HIV are taking a longer time to develop AIDS.
Because of all of these factors, and the constantly changing effectiveness of medications, there are currently no reliable estimates on how long on average HIV takes to progress into AIDS.
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The HIV Cycle
HIV is an incurable sexually transmitted virus that attacks and weakens a person's immune system. Your immune system is a complex system that fights off infection and generally keeps you healthy. A person infected with HIV is said to be HIV-positive.
The HIV replication cycle
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