On Healthy Living

It seems a grim occasion to mark, but today is considered the anniversary of when AIDS was first reported, 25 years ago exactly. In that time an amazing number of strides were made in prevention and treatment, but, as much of the news coverage points out, we’re not as far along as some had hoped.

There was a lot of talk that an AIDS vaccine, or even a cure, was on the horizon as long ago as 10 years ago, but neither has happened yet. Education has slowed the spread of the disease, in the western world, anyway, but still one million Americans are infected and 40,000 more are diagnosed each year. Because of better treatments only about 15,000 die each year from AIDS in the United States, but the treatment hasn’t really changed since the breakthrough drug cocktail was put into practice about a decade ago, though the cocktail itself has shrunk from 20 or more pills a day to two or three, and the FDA is looking at a one-pill solution that combines several drugs.

Despite good, or at least better, news in the states, the outlook is grim worldwide, where AIDS is the fourth-leading cause of death. More than 25 million have died worldwide; 2.8 million will die this year. More than 38 million people are infected, and more than 4 million are added to those rolls each year.

(If you wondered, heart disease, stroke and respiratory infections are the top three killers around the world.)

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the first reports of a strange disease affecting gay men; a very rare pneumonia until that time only seen in people with leukemia. It wasn’t called AIDS then, all people knew was that it was new, strange, and fatal. If you want to learn more about the beginning of AIDS, I highly recommend you read the book or watch the movie And the Band Played On. It’s a very true and heart-rending account of the early days of the disease and the search for its cause.

AIDS is a difficult disease to control because of the rapid rate of mutation. People who have lived with AIDS for a long time become resistant to the available drugs, as some 15 percent of Americans living with AIDS have already done. There are 25 different drugs approved for controlling AIDS, and new drugs can help those whose disease has progressed beyond the available drugs. But it’s not known how long people can go through this cycle of constantly taking very harsh drugs.

Still, there are new drugs being studied and prevention methods being tested, so there is a lot of hope even when there is not a lot of good news.

Sources:
LA Times
New York Times

Sarah White wrote this on June 5th, 2006 and filed it under Healthy Living, Women's Health, Men's Health |