Essays

AIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is at present a sentence of slow but inevitable death- According to a study, in U.S. one man in 10 may already be carrying the AIDS virus. There currently is neither a cure, nor even an effective treatment and no vaccine either. But there are things that have been 'proven' immensely effective in slowing the spread of this hideously lethal disease.

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Disease. It. is caused by a virus, the disease originated somewhere in Africa about 20 years ago. There it first appeared as a mysterious ailment afflicting primarily heterosexuals of both sexes. It probably was spread especially fast by primarily female prostitutes there. AIDS has already become a crisis of 'staggering' proportions in parts of Africa. In Zaire, it is estimated that over twenty per cent or the adults currently carry the virus. That figure is increasing- And what occurred there will, if no cure is found, most likely 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 culture in the days before 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.

The disease is spread primarily by exposure of one’s blood to infected blood or semen, drug addicts who shared needles also soon were identified as an affected group- AIDS is also spread by heterosexual sex. In addition, it is spread by blood transfusions. Newborn babies can acquire the disease from infected mothers during pregnancy. More and more 'mainstream' folks got the disease. Basic medical research began to provide a few bits of information and some help. The virus causing the disease was isolated and identified. The AIDS virus turned out to be a very unusual sort of virus. Its genetic material was not DNA, but RNA. When it infected human cells, it had its RNA direct the synthesis of viral DNA, While RNA viruses are not that uncommon, and very few KNA viruses reproduce by setting up the flow of information from RNA to UNA. Such reverse or 'retro' flow of information does not occur at all in any DNA virus or any other living things.

Hence, the virus was said to belong to the rare group of viruses, called 'Retro Viruses'. Research provided the means to test donated blood for the presence or the antibodies to the virus, astronomically reducing the chance of one getting AIDS from a blood transfusion. This was one of the first real breakthroughs. The same discoveries that allowed us to make our blood bank blood supply far safer also allowed us to be able to tell (in most cases) whether one has been exposed to the AIDS virus using a simple blood test.

The Types of AIDS Infection: When the AIDS virus gets into a person's body, the results can be broken down into three general types of situations; AIDS disease, ARC and asymptomatic seropositive condition- The AIDS disease is characterized by having one's immune system devastated by the AIDS virus. One is said to have the 'disease' if one contracts particular varieties (Pneumocystis, for example) of pneumonia or one of several particular varieties of otherwise rare cancers (Kaposi's sarcoma, for example). This 'disease' is inevitably fatal. Death occurs often after many weeks or months of expensive and painful hospital care. Most folks with the disease can transmit it to others by sexual contact or other exposure of an uninfected person's blood to the blood or semen of the infected person. There is also a condition referred to as ARC ('Aids Related Complex').

In this situation, one is infected with the AIDS virus and one's immune system is compromised, but not so much so that one gets the (ultimately lethal) cancers or pneumonias of the AIDS disease. One tends to be plagued by frequent colds, enlarged lymph nodes and the like. This condition can go on for years. One is likely to be able to infect others if one has ARC. Unfortunately, all those with ARC are currently felt to eventually progress to getting the full-blown AIDS disease. There are, however many folks who have 'no' obvious signs of disease whatsoever but when their blood serum is tested they show positive evidence of having been exposed to the virus- This is on the basis of the fact that antibodies to the AIDS virus are found in their blood. Such 'asymptomatic but seropositive' folks may or may not carry enough virus to be infectious.

Most sadly, though, current research and experience with the disease would seem to indicate that 'eventually' nearly all folks who are seropositive will develop the full blown AIDS disease. There is one ray of hope here: It may in some cases take up to 15 years or more between one's becoming seropositive for the AIDS virus and one's developing the disease-

There is one other fact that needs to he mentioned here because it is highly significant in determining recommendations for safe sexual conduct which will be discussed below: Currently, it is felt that after exposure to the virus, most folks will turn seropositive for it (develop a positive blood test for it) within four months. It is currently felt that if you are sexually exposed to a person with AIDS and do not become seropositive within six months after that exposure; you will never become seropositive as a result of that exposure-

Transmission of AIDS: The AIDS virus is extremely fragile and is killed by exposure to mild detergents or to chlorox, among other things. AIDS itself may be transmitted by actual virus particles or by the transmission of living human cells that contain AIDS viral DNA already grafted onto the human DNA, or both. Which of these two mechanisms is the main one is not known yet. But the fact remains that it is 'very' hard to catch AIDS unless one engages in certain specific activities. What will 'not' transmit AIDS? Casual contact (shaking hands, hugging, sharing tools) cannot transmit AIDS. Although live virus has been recovered from saliva of AIDS patients, the techniques used to do this involved concentrating the virus to extents many thousands of times greater than occurs in normal human contact, such as kissing (including 'deep' or 'French' kissing).

Thus, there remains no solid evidence that even 'deep' kissing can transmit AIDS; similarly, there is no evidence that sharing food or eating utensils with an AIDS patient can transmit the virus. The same is true for transmission by sneezing or coughing. There just is no current evidence that the disease can be transmitted that way. The same may be true even for 'biting', though here there may be some increased (though still remote) chance of transmitting the disease. The above is very important.

Indeed, there appears still to be 'no' rational basis for excluding AIDS suffers from food preparation activity. Even if an AIDS sufferer cuts his or her finger and bleeds into the salad or soup, most of the cells and virus will die, in most cases, before the food is consumed- In addition, it is extremely difficult to get successfully attacked by AIDS via stuff you eat. AIDS cannot be transmitted by the act of 'giving' blood to a blood bank. All equipment used for such blood donation is sterile and is used just once and then discarded.

How is AIDS transmitted? Sexual activity is one of the primary ways AIDS is transmitted. AIDS is transmitted particularly by the transmission of blood or semen of an infected person into contact with the blood of an uninfected person. As mentioned above, AIDS is also transmitted among intravenous drug users by the sharing of needles. Note that even if you don't care what happens to I.V. drug abnsers, the increase in the number of folks carrying the virus ultimately endangers 'all' living persons. Thus, the issue is 'not' what you morally think of I.V. drug addicts, but one of what is the most rational way to slow the spread of AIDS in all populations. Testing of donatrd blood for AIDS has massively reduced the chance of catching AIDS from blood transfusions. But a very small risk still remains.

To further reduce that risk, efforts have been made to use 'auto transfusions' in cases of "elective surgery' (surgery that can be planned months in advance), Auto transfusion involves the patient storing their own blood a couple of weeks prior to their own surgery, to be used during the surgery if needed. Similarly, setting up donations of blood from friends and family known to be antibody negative and at low risk for AIDS prior to scheduled surgery further can decrease the already small risks from transfusion.

According to the medical and research community worldwide, the AIDS epidemic is a serious problem, with the potential to become the worst plague this species has ever known. This is 'serious' business. Vastly greater sums should be spent on searching for treatments and vaccines. On the other hand, we feel strongly that this is 'merely' a disease, not an act by a supernatural power. And while it does not seem likely we will find either a cure or a vaccine in the foreseeable future, it may be that truly effective treatments that can indefinitely prolong the life of AIDS victims may be found in the next few years.