History of the AIDS Epidemic
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The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has grown exponentially in the past two decades. A few widely scattered reports from the late 1970's and early 1980s describe individuals with AIDS symptoms. Since then, the disease has become one of humanity's great medical scourges. There is no known cure for the disease and it is still regarded as one-hundred percent fatal. The disease weakens the immune system to the point where the body no longer has the capacity to defend itself against disease-carrying microbes. This exposes the individual to numerous pathologies which cannot be fought off. These pathologies commonly include Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis carinii Pneumonia. The current state of research is leading the medical profession to the conclusion that AIDS may be eventually placed in the category of a manageable health condition, much like diabetes. As of now, though, there is still no long term or permanent solution. AIDS historians look to the American Bicentennial celebration in New York as a plausible occasion at which the disease may have entered the United States. The person generally regarded as "Patient Zero" was a flight attendant by the name of Gaetan Dugas. The disease can be transmitted sexually, and Gaetan Dugas had been sexually active and was linked to at least 40 of the first 248 gay men diagnosed with AIDS in the United States: Whether Gaetan Dugas actually was the person who brought AIDS to North America
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LA. He had recognized an increase in interstitial pneumonia enough to publish an extensive paper on the topic in the December 10, 1981 New England Journal of Medicine. By May 21, 1982, the CDC had identified the disease as a growing health concern among American Homosexual males. Problematically, the early association of homosexuality with the disease hampered efforts to halt the growing epidemic. To the extent that Americans were aware of the disease, common opinion held that AIDS was exclusive to one group and the method of transmission had not been fully identified (if in fact the disease could be transmitted).
A possible explanation of the lack of information at the time is that the media gatekeepers such as editors of the nation's daily newspapers and television news directors were afraid that a strong focus on a disease thought to be transmitted during homosexual contact would offend their readers and viewers.
The same symptoms, however, emerged in other members of the populace. In 1982, the presence of the disease was noted in a large sampling of heterosexual Haitians and also in intravenous drug users who had shared needles. Furthermore, a small percentage of the nation's hemophiliacs were acquiring the disease. Gradua
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Some common words found in the essay are:
American AIDS, American Homosexual, Legionella Toxoplasma, Kaposi's Sarcoma, Syndrome AIDS, Fee Fox, York City, Sarcoma Pneumocystis, Gaetan Dugas, San Francisco, kaposi's sarcoma, immune system, aids epidemic, gaetan dugas, disease transmitted, intravenous drug users, body's immune, cells antigens, report issued, york city, acquiring disease, york st martin's, body's immune system,
Approximate Word count = 1459
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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