At this age, the cottontails still cannot live without motherâs milk. 3 day old cottontail (right) next to 14 day old cottontail (left) Seven to Nine Days Old: Similar to a 4-5 day old cottontail, there should not be too much difference at this stage. Eyes should be beginning to open and may look like little slits.
In doing so, the virus destroys the ability of the infected cells to do their job in the immune system. The body then loses the ability to fight many infections. When a person with HIV has an extremely low number of CD4 cells or certain rare infections, doctors call this stage of disease AIDS.
CD4 cells play a major role in helping your immune system work properly. HIV causes disease by killing off CD4 cells. It does this by infecting the cells and turning them into virus factories, a process that kills the cell. A test called the CD4 count can tell you how many CD4 cells you have.