| Popis: |
While research has shown that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may have been present in humans as early as the start of the twentieth century in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), the diagnosis remained out of the public eye for over half a century. In the 1980s, that all changed. When acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first described in 1981, acquisition of the disease was considered a death sentence. HIV had not yet been discovered and antiretroviral (ARV) medications were not available. Initial treatments were limited to treating concomitant opportunistic infections and their complications. Moreover, the medical and public hysteria over how the disease could be spread lead to stigma among those affected. More than 30 million people worldwide are infected, with the largest number of infected individuals living in resource-poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Additionally, it is estimated that only half to two-thirds of people with HIV currently have access to treatment. In the United States, an estimated 1,122,900 people were living with HIV in 2015, which includes an estimate of the number of people with HIV who do not yet know of their diagnosis. In 2016, the last full year for which statistics are available, 39,782 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in the United States. HIV is a retrovirus that is transmitted generally through direct blood exposure or through contact with contaminated body fluids, such as with sexual exposure. Infection with HIV leads to significant immunosuppression as the virus infects CD4+ T cells and causes their progressive depletion. |
