Essay, Research Paper: Aids

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), human viral
disease that ravages the immune system, undermining the
body's ability to defend itself from infection and disease. Caused
by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), AIDS leaves an
infected person vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Such
infections are harmless in healthy people, but in those whose
immune systems have been greatly weakened, they can prove
fatal. Although there is no cure for AIDS, new drugs are
available that can prolong the life spans and improve the quality
of life of infected people.
Infection with HIV does not necessarily mean that a person has
AIDS. Some people who have HIV infection may not develop any
of the clinical illnesses that define the full-blown disease of AIDS
for ten years or more. Physicians prefer to use the term AIDS for
cases where a person has reached the final, life-threatening
stage of HIV infection.
II. PrevalencePrint section
AIDS was first identified in 1981 among homosexual men and
intravenous drug users in New York and California. Shortly after
its detection in the United
States, evidence of AIDS
epidemics grew among
heterosexual men, women,
and children in
sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS
quickly developed into a
worldwide epidemic,
affecting virtually every
nation. By 2000 an
estimated 34.7 million
adults and 1.4 million
children worldwide were
living with HIV infection or
AIDS. The World Health
Organization (WHO), a
specialized agency of the
United Nations (UN),
estimates that from 1981
to the end of 2000 about
21.8 million people died as
a result of AIDS. More
than 4.3 million of those who died were children under the age of
15.


Word Count: 266