AIDS in the Eighties :: AIDS HIV Diseases Essays

AIDS in the mid-eightiesFour years ago I got into a near shameful car accident and lost a lot of blood. I was move into a nearby San Francisco hospital where doctors treated me with transfused blood. Ironically, the same blood that salve my life will eventually lead to my death. It is currently 1987 in San Francisco, one of many areas in the world suffering from a virus believed to obtain come from Western Africa. Earlier in the decade scientists discovered the virus was linked to the sickness, Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, which dominantly afflicted festive males. The virus, which was not extensively covered by the media, was reported to have been transmitted with bodily fluids through sexual contact, divided up needles, fetus transmissions, and blood transfusions. Scientists discovered that the virus contained surface proteins that binded to receptors on CD4 T cells. The virus would then undergo self replication and hide internal T cells. The nascent virus t hen emerged out of the cells nucleus, causing T cells to lyse. This cycle continued and gradually decreased the persons immunity toward pathogenic microbes. in that location have been many conflicting reports as to how this virus found its carriage from Western Africa to distant parts of the world. A popular reason whitethorn have been from a person that killed a monkey containing the simian salmagundi of the virus. The person may have eaten the monkey and contracted the zoonotic virus. another(prenominal) perspective comes from devout religious individuals that believe the virus was brought to earth by God as a punishment to the sinning gays and lesbians. Either way, the disease became widespread, infecting both males and females. Its spread was due to travel. Because the world has become a smaller place from airplanes, cars, trains, and boats, the disease shifted from a localized epidemic to a oecumenic pandemic. The media is partially responsible for the current image that AIDS patients have with the public. uneducated reports from television, radio, newspapers, and magazines caused the public into a panic that lasts to this day. A few years ago, accounts of gay men dying from common diseases like the cold and flu began appearing in the media. Pretty soon, normal individuals became very sick from common diseases. Because archean accounts had singled out homosexuals as having this unknown disease, it was assumed that homosexuals had spread the virus.