Trends of HIV and AIDS in the USA Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Trends of HIV and AIDS in the USA - Assignment Example Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is like any other virus that attacks human beings. The difference is that this virus cannot be eradicated by the immune system. The virus is responsible for weakening the key parts of the human immune system (CD4 cells or T-cells), such that it becomes ineffective in fighting diseases. With time, it causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Symptom (AIDS), at the final stage of HIV infection. With proper treatment, however, a person can keep his/her HIV level low reducing the chances of developing AIDS (Aids.gov, 2014). The condition can be transmitted through unprotected sexual intercourse with an infected person, childbirth (from infected mother) and blood transfusion (exchange of blood from infected individuals). In 1981, United States of America became the first country to recognize HIV and AIDS as a new disease among gay men. However, the origins of HIV and AIDS are suspected to be in Africa (Avert, 2014). Since it was first discovered to the public conscience more than three decades ago to date, the disease has gained a notorious reputation as a feared and controversial disease in modern medicine which leads to it being widely politicized and mystified (Avert, 2014). During the early 1980s, disjointed reports from many states, especially California and New York, claimed that small groups of men, most notably elderly men of Jewish/Mediterranean descent and young African Americans, were contracting a rare and new type of cancer and/or pneumonia. A common factor in the groups of individuals affected by this disease was that they were all homosexuals. In June 1981, the condition was first documented by the United States Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) and was named as Pneumocystis Pneumonia. By early 1982, the condition had acquired various names including ‘gay-related immune deficiency’, ‘gay-cancer’ and ‘gay compromise syndrome’ with approximately five new cases being reported per week. The acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was suggested in July 1982 at a meeting in Washington with the CDC first using the term in September 1982. Â