Hiv Aids: Past, Present, Future

Gabrielle A.E. Lewis

HLSC 202

Dr. Leah Cullins

June 22, 2014

HIV/AIDS: Past, Present, and Future

An epidemic disease is an infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people (“epidemic disease”, 2014). Its prevalence is temporary, but its effects are lasting. Over the years, there have been an overwhelming number of epidemics. Several of them infamous for their severity and the impact that they had. HIV/AIDS is and is continuing to be one of them.

In June 2011, the world of HIV/AIDS marked a breakthrough. It had been thirty years since the first documented case of HIV/AIDS. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1959, is where AIDS first appeared (“HIV/AIDS”, 2014). Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans. They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood. The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa (“History and Origin of HIV/AIDS”, 2014). It wouldn’t be long before the disease spread to other parts of the world.

In the United States, AIDS did not first appear until 1981. It was introduced and spread amongst hundreds of homosexual men. The perception of AIDS as a "gay" disease contributed to a delay in testing and drug development. The disease soon spread to heterosexuals, including hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS through blood transfusions. By the end of 1983 the number of AIDS diagnoses reported in the USA had risen to 3,064 and of these people 1,292 had died. For a while the American government completely ignored the emerging AIDS epidemic. AIDS would not be publicly mentioned until 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. This would also be the year when the first major...