HIV/AIDS

Short Description
HIV/AIDS, with one fourth of the people unaware of their. status, and approximately 40000 new … estimated 2.8 million deaths worldwide due to HIV/AIDS. …

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Content
National Institutes of Health
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and HHS Fact Sheet HIV/AIDS
Twenty-Five Years Ago
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On June 5, 1981, the first cases of a new and fatal disease now known as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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AIDS was first recognized in homosexual men, but it was soon determined that the virus that causes AIDS can spread through sexual contact, blood and blood products, and from mother to infant during pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding.
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AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By killing or damaging cells of the body’s immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and certain cancers. People diagnosed with AIDS may get life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick.
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At the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, treatment was confined to palliative care and management of opportunistic infections.
Today
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Today, HIV/AIDS is a global catastrophe. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), approximately 38.6 million people worldwide are living with…