Why is HIV particle so virulent?

Answer:
So Virulent? Where do you get that information? What are you relying on to make such a bold inacurate statement?In the 1980s it was often claimed that HIV infection led to AIDS very quickly, but as time went on the asymptomatic period was stretched out until now the consensus is that it is about 10 years, both in countries where HIV testing and AIDS drugs are common, and in poorer countries where they are not.“Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Gange said records of a large group of gay men studied in the late 1980s showed that seven out of 10,000 cases developed AIDS within six months of infection.”
Brown D. Drug-resistant AIDS case remains a puzzle. Washington Post. 2005 Feb 25.“There are too many shortcomings in the theory that HIV causes all signs of AIDS. We are seeing people HIV-infected for 9, 10, 12 years or more, and they are still in good shape, their immune system is still good. It is unlikely that these people will come down with AIDS later.”
VI Int’l AIDS Conference, Jun 24 1990We live in a media age that loves sound bites and simple quotes. This question follows that logic and goes to prove that what we hear about HIV is not the real thing.

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From what I understand, does it not change its form and shape somehow, so that antibodies are unable to identify it and attack it??

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^ (I think what Andy wrote is about Malaria Parasites)
HIV - because it damages a person's immune system (such as helper T cells). A person infected with HIV is infected for life - there's no cure. Over time, as the immune system weakens, a person with HIV may develop rare infections or cancers. When these are particularly serious, the person is said to have AIDS.

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Like Hep C, HIV can change it's form by swapping genes, producing many different strains / subtypes, making it difficult to produce a vaccine. This is why even people who are already infected should take precautions, as there is the potential for people to become infected with a number of different strains. This could potentially produce extremely dangerous strains of HIV, that are resistant to current retro-viral drugs. There is also the danger that a variant could develop that could be passed on more easily, ie: possibly become airborne, like TB.This has already happened with TB, causing multi-drug resistant TB to become prevelant in certain areas of Africa, and elsewhere. Another example is how MSRA has mutated to produce the much more dangerous VRSR, as in resistant to Vancomycin, the drug of choice for MRSA.For more information see the follwing links:http://www.avert.org/http://www.hivdent.org/drugs/drughahdr01...http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/2006051...http://www.who.int/hiv/en/http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_...

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Virulence is a measure of how likely an organism is to cause a disease. I'm not sure how virulent it is... It is however the most lethal virus, because it has a rather cunning trick. The virus takes its DNA, and adds it to the host cell DNA, making it a "retrovirus". The viral DNA then becomes part of the human DNA, so when that cell divides, the viral DNA divides with it. By infecting a dividing cell whose function it is to replace other cells, the virus can reproduce large numbers of itself without running the risk of ever dying out. Because even when all the virust particles are destroyed, viral DNA in the host cells still contains all the information needed to make new particles.
It infects immune cells called T-cells and macrophages. This is also very cunning and devious because it is these two types of cells that are responsible for removing other cells in the body infected with HIV. So in all its cunningness, the HIV virus removes any resistance the body has to offer to the virus' reproduction. Sort of like destroying a country's army before invading it.
Invasion by the virus is not the major problem. The problem is due to the lack of immunity resulting from the destruction all the immune cells, (hence Adult Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS). This allows other bacteria and fungi to grow in the body and wreak havoc unsupervised, leading eventually to death.
Thats why the treatment is in trying to destroy these invading bacteria and fungi, using a "cocktail" of drugs for all the different types of organisms.

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itz mainly coz it selectively attacks n destroys d helper t cells of d immune system... destruction of des cells causes many infections which will b very virulent in des patients...

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The HIV virus is constantly evolving, which is why scientists can't make vaccines for it, it affects the immune system, but it also invades the cells of the immune system, so they carry on reproducing, thinking they are making more antibodies, but are actullay churning out a supply of the HIV virus

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The immune system is so good at attacking it but cannot win without a little help. It feels like the shock you would get when rubbing your feet on carpet and then touching metal as the virus first enters the initial cells. After the initial cells are destroyed there seems to be nothing going on. However, there is a constant struggle going on inside the body as the immune system battles the virus.

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