‘What’s AIDS?’ 9-year-old son

When answering this question from a 9 to 12-year-old son or daughter give the important facts:

‘AIDS is an illness caused by a virus called HIV.

People can be infected with this virus by having sex with an infected person, sharing needles when using drugs, having a blood transfusion with infected blood, or a HIV positive mother can pass it on to her baby during breastfeeding.’

Talking about the actions that put someone at risk of HIV is more accurate than talking about the groups of people who are more likely to be infected with the virus.

You may go on to say that a person with HIV may be healthy for many years, especially with treatment, but when they have AIDS they are very sick and then the condition is difficult to treat.