AIDS and YOU :: Free AIDS Essays

AIDS is a life and death issue. To withstand the AIDS infirmity is atpresent a sentence of slake but inevitable death. Ive already lost onefriend to AIDS. I may soon lose others. My own sexual behavior and that ofmany of my friends has been deeply altered by it. In my part of thecountry, one man in 10 may already be carrying the AIDS virus. While thefigures may shortly be less in much of the rest of the country, this ischanging rapidly. There currently is neither a cure, nor even an effectivetreatment, and no vaccine either. still there are things that have beenPROVEN immensely effective in retard the spread of this hideously lethaldisease. In this essay I go for to present this information.History and OverviewAIDS stands for Acquired Immune Defficiency Disease. It is causedby a virus. The disease originated somewhere in Africa about 20 years ago.There it first appeared as a mysterious ailment afflicting primarilyheterosexuals of some(prenominal) sexes. It probably was sprea d peculiarly fast byprimarily female prostitutes there. AIDS has already mother a crisis ofSTAGGERING proportions in parts of Africa. In Zaire, it is estimated thatover twenty percentage of the adults currently carry the virus. That figureis increasing. And what occurred there will, if no cure is found, aboutlikely occur here among heterosexual folks.AIDS was first seen as a disease of queer males in this country.This was a result of the fact that gay males in this culture in the daysbefore AIDS had an average of cc to 400 new sexual contacts per year. This figure was much higher than customary practice among heterosexual(straight) men or women. In addition, it turned out that rectal sex was aparticularly effective way to transmit the disease, and rectal sex is acommon practice among gay males. For these reasons, the disease spread inthe gay male population of this country immensely more promptly than inother populations. It became to be thought of as a gay disease. Becauseth e disease is spread primarily by exposure of ones blood to giveblood or semen, I.V. drug addicts who shared needles in like manner soon wereidentified as an affected group. As the AIDS epidemic began to affectincreasingly king-sized fractions of those two populations (gay males and IVdrug abusers), many of the rest of this society looked on smugly, forboth populations tended to be despised by the mainstream of society here.But AIDS is also spread by heterosexual sex. In addition, it isspread by blood transfusions.AIDS and YOU Free AIDS EssaysAIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is atpresent a sentence of slow but inevitable death. Ive already lost onefriend to AIDS. I may soon lose others. My own sexual behavior and that ofmany of my friends has been profoundly altered by it. In my part of thecountry, one man in 10 may already be carrying the AIDS virus. While thefigures may currently be less in much of the rest of the country, this ischanging rapidly. There currently is neither a cure, nor even an effectivetreatment, and no vaccine either. But there are things that have beenPROVEN immensely effective in slowing the spread of this hideously lethaldisease. In this essay I hope to present this information.History and OverviewAIDS stands for Acquired Immune Defficiency Disease. It is causedby a virus. The disease originated somewhere in Africa about 20 years ago.There it first appeared as a mysterious ailment afflicting primarilyheterosexuals of both sexes. It probably was spread especially fast byprimarily female prostitutes there. AIDS has already become a crisis ofSTAGGERING proportions in parts of Africa. In Zaire, it is estimated thatover twenty percent of the adults currently carry the virus. That figureis increasing. And what occurred there will, if no cure is found, mostlikely occur here among heterosexual folks.AIDS was first seen as a disease of gay males in this country.This was a result of the fact that gay males in this cultu re in the daysbefore AIDS had an average of 200 to 400 new sexual contacts per year. This figure was much higher than common practice among heterosexual(straight) men or women. In addition, it turned out that rectal sex was aparticularly effective way to transmit the disease, and rectal sex is acommon practice among gay males. For these reasons, the disease spread inthe gay male population of this country immensely more quickly than inother populations. It became to be thought of as a gay disease. Becausethe disease is spread primarily by exposure of ones blood to infectedblood or semen, I.V. drug addicts who shared needles also soon wereidentified as an affected group. As the AIDS epidemic began to affectincreasingly large fractions of those two populations (gay males and IVdrug abusers), many of the rest of this society looked on smugly, forboth populations tended to be despised by the mainstream of society here.But AIDS is also spread by heterosexual sex. In addition, it isspread by blood transfusions.