AIDS
You have probably heard and read about the recently recognized disease called AIDS (acquired immune-deficiency syndrome). At first AIDS was thought to be an unusual and rare disease limited primarily to homosexual (“gay”) men. It is now clear that the disease is in fact an epidemic that attacks two groups of people. The first group includes “high-risk” individuals, mainly homosexuals and intravenous drug users. In the second group are “low-risk” individuals who had received blood or blood-product transfusions before tests were available to screen blood for the virus, children who were born to a person with AIDS, or people who had a heterosexual relationship with an infected person.
The virus causing AIDS has now been identified. The AIDS virus or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) attacks the immune system of the body and destroys a person’s ability to fight off other infections. People afflicted with the AIDS virus become ill with persistent and recurring infections, often of unusual type, and eventually succumb to the disease and its complications.
Although at this time there is no cure for AIDS, some medications can treat and prevent some of the infections that AIDS victims often contract. These drugs have improved the ability of patients to survive these otherwise potentially lethal infections. Scientists are testing a number of drugs to treat AIDS-afflicted individuals and are working to develop a vaccine to protect against contracting AIDS.
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