AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. I am doing a report on AIDS. I don’t know much about it, but I will tell you what I know. I know that it is transmitted through sexual contact, blood, needles, and from mother to child during or before birth. I also know that it directly affects the immune system. AIDS is caused by the HIV virus, for which there is currently no cure, but serious research is being done.
I call it the Generation X Disease” because it mostly affects my sex-oriented generation. It is currently one of the leading causes of death in the USA, and the death rate is increasing drastically. It is the perfect virus of the nineties because of how it is transmitted – like what the nineties are about: sex and drugs. What a great generation, huh?
Everyone is doing drugs and having pre-marital sex at a young, irresponsible age. It’s getting so bad that I am beginning to believe that I am the only normal person left. In the past, you could only get an HIV test at your doctor’s office, but now there are home tests available that are confidential. You can purchase one at the store, prick your finger, and mail in the blood sample. In about two or three weeks, you can call in and enter your special pin number to receive your results. I think this is cool, but there may be some drawbacks, such as samples getting mixed up in the mail or other mistakes that could lead to false readings. For example, you could receive someone else’s HIV test results even if you don’t have the disease.
That’s about all I know about this horrible disease. So, I’ll move on to what I found when I researched this topic. I went on the internet to find some of my information and used different books recommended by the librarian to read on AIDS and HIV. AIDS appears to be constantly changing its genetic structure, making it very hard to find a cure for it and for the body to make antibodies. This makes the development of a vaccine that is able to raise protective antibodies to all virus strands a difficult task. I also found out that they have made so much progress in finding a cure because they know so much about it now. The only known chemical that is effective in reducing reactions/symptoms is the chemical zidovudine, which was formerly called azidothymidine (AZT).
The AIDS epidemic, which was developed in 1987, is having a major impact on many aspects of medicine and healthcare. It is indicated that few, if any, are likely to survive the virus in the long run.
The U.S. Public Health Service estimates that the annual cumulative lifetime cost of treating all persons with AIDS in 1991 was $5.3 billion, and it was expected to reach $7 billion by 1995. People exposed to HIV are having a lot of difficulty obtaining adequate health insurance coverage.
I found that yearly AZT expenses, for example, can average around six thousand dollars. However, in 1989, the drug’s maker did offer to distribute AZT freely to HIV-infected children. The yearly cost for DDI is around two thousand dollars. It can be a big problem when legal action might have to be taken. Pretty soon, mandatory testing for the disease will be a necessity, not a right. Most people are too scared or embarrassed to ask their partner if they are infected.
The first case of AIDS was identified in 1979 in New York. Workers at the National Cancer Institute developed tests for AIDS, enabling them to follow the transmission of the disease and study its origin and mechanism. It is thought that AIDS originated in Africa, as it is known to infect some African monkeys and many cases have been reported there. In 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that there were 203,599 reported cases of AIDS. By 1996, it was in the millions. This shows how fast the disease spreads and how it affects everyone.
