HIV/AIDS: State of Florida Mandatory Update

Introduction

Introduction

The Global Picture of HIV/AIDS

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis

Social Issues

Conclusion

References

Test

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HIV/AIDS has changed dramatically in the past 25 years since the disease was identified. The first cases were reported among gay men who presented with a syndrome that included wasting, fevers, frequent acute illnesses, diarrhea, and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Once diagnosed with PCP or other opportunistic infections, care was palliative with no known cause or treatment effective against their spiraling immune function.

The looped red ribbon has become the universal symbol of AIDS awareness.

Courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.

During this time, when the cause of HIV/AIDS was not known, patients could be turned away from treatment or kept in isolation for fear of spread of the disease. In some cases health care workers refused to care for the patients due to fear of contagion and /or stigmatized them because of their sexual orientation. It may be easy to criticize those actions now, but looking back they faced a deadly disease with no known cause or cure.

We know now that HIV/AIDS was not a new disease in the 1980's, and that cases have been identified as far back as the 1930's although they weren't identified at that time. HIV, a zoonotic disease, originated in Africa; recent research indicates that HIV may have been introduced to humans from apes as long ago as the early 1800s (Wrobey, et al., 2008). HIV eventually made its way to the Western world because of a combination of events including: the destruction of the rainforest, migration patterns of African natives from tribal lands to cities and back for trading and employment, prostitution along trade routes, and increasing availability and affordability to travel between countries and continents.

Regardless of the history of HIV development and migration, the disease as we know it in the U.S. may have turned out much differently if bureaucrats had responded more quickly to initial health reports. What was originally perceived to be isolated events among the gay population, evolved into a serious public health threat to the entire world within less than two decades. Unfortunately, the U.S. was not the only country to underestimate the threat of HIV/AIDS. Others were also slow to respond, allowing HIV to spread silently for years before cases of AIDS were identified. By the time they realized there was a problem, the damage had already been done.