Tale deficienza sempre più grave del sistema immunitario lo rende vulnerabile a numerose malattie dette "opportuniste", come la tubercolosi, la polmonite o il sarcoma di Kaposi.
The progressive failure of the immune system exposes the patient to various "opportunistic" diseases including tuberculosis, pneumonia and Kaposi's sarcoma, and death is caused by one or more such infections rather than by the virus itself.