AIDS Essay Research Paper recognized disease entity

about one percent. The number of new cases of Aids in women of reproductive age is

increasing at an alarming rate. “Aids has become the leading cause of death for women

between the ages of twenty and forty in the major cities of North and South America,

Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.” In the United States, Aids has hit the hardest

among black and Hispanic women. These women represent seventeen percent of the

female population but make up seventy-three percent of women with Aids. Aids is also

having a devastating impact on infant mortality, since over eighty percent of the HIV-

infected children under the age of thirteen acquired HIV from their infected mothers.

Between twenty-four and thirty-three percent of children born to infected mothers will

develop the disease. No scientific evidence supports transmission of Aids through

ordinary nonsexual conduct. Careful studies demonstrate that despite prolonged

household contact with individuals, family members have not become infected-except

through the routes described above. Health care workers have been infected with HIV

from exposure to contaminated blood or by accidentally sticking themselves with

contaminated needles(SF Examiner A1+).

Following infection with HIV, an individual may show no symptoms at all, or may

develop an acute but transient mononucleus-like illness. The period between initial

infection and the development of Aids can very greatly, apparently from about six months

to eleven years. Various estimates indicate that somewhere between twenty-six to forty-

six percent of infected individuals will go on to develop full-blown Aids within a little

more than seven years following infection. Once Aids sets in, the clinic course follows a

rapid decline; and most people with Aids die within three years(SF ExaminerA1+).

Two major avenues are being pursued by biomedical scientists the fight against

HIV infection and Aids. One strategy is to develop a vaccine that can induce neutralizing

antibodies against HIV and protect uninfected individuals if exposed to the virus itself.

The second approach involves the discovery and development of therapeutic agents

against HIV infection and Aids. At present no vaccine exists to protect against infection,

although recent advances have led some experts to predict that a vaccine should be

available within the next ten years. Obstacles still remain, however, primarily due to the

variability of the virus itself. Many different strains of HIV exist, and even within a given

individuals body the virus can undergo mutations rapidly and easily. A number of

candidate vaccines were in the early phases of testing in human volunteers by the early

1990s around the world(Fettner180).

The effects of the epidemic on society at large are increasingly evident. Aids tests

are now required in the military services. Various proposals have been made for

mandatory screening of other groups such as health-care workers, especially since a

Florida dentist who died of Aids in 1990 is believed to have infected five patients. A

number of nations, including the United States, have instituted stringent rules for testing

long-term foreign visitors or potential immigrants for Aids, as well as testing returning

foreign nationals. In the United States one frequent phenomenon is the effort to keep

school-age children with Aids isolated from their classmates, if not out of school

altogether. Governmental and civil rights organizations have countered restrictive moves

with a great deal of success. There is little doubt that the ultimate physical toll of the Aids

epidemic will be high, as will be its economic costs, however the social issues are resolved.

Concerted efforts are under way to address the problem at many levels, and they offer

hope for successful strategies to combat HIV-induced disease.