Aids
...virus was discovered in France in
1983 and in the United States in
1984. In the United States, it was
initially identified in 1981. In
1986, a second virus, now called
HIV-2, was also discovered in
Africa.(Bookshelves)" Female
prostitutes in Africa probably
spread it very quickly. AIDS became
a huge crisis of major proportions
in parts of Africa. It is my own
strongly held opinion, and that of
most medical and research community
world wide, that the AIDS epidemic
is a serious problem. It has become
the worst plague this species has
ever known. Vastly greater sums
should be spent on searching for
treatments and vaccines. The United
States government needs to do more
intensive tests and research to
help curb this virus instead of
waiting for other countries to do
so.
AIDS is transmitted in one of three
ways: From intimate sexual contact
without protection, from the mixing
of a person's blood with infected
blood, and from an infected
pregnant woman to her fetus.
Infection can occur from blood
transfusions of infected blood, or
sharing unclean needles. (Needles
already used, in this case, by an
HIV positive person and not
sterilized.) The HIV-2 virus also
causes AIDS.
AIDS was first seen as a disease
limited gay males in the United
States. "This was a result that gay
males in this culture before AIDS
had an average of 200 to 400 new
sexual contacts per year. This
figure was much greater than the
new sexual encounters among
heterosexual (straight) men or
women. (Strack,5)" In addition, it
turned out that rectal sex was a
particularly effective way to
transmit the disease. Rectal sex is
a common practice among gay males.
For these reasons, the disease
spread in the gay male population
of the United States more quickly
than in other populations. It
became to be thought of as a "gay
disease". As the AIDS...
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