AIDS |
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Between 1981 and 1986 some 12,000 people died of the disease AIDS. What is this deadly disease? It is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the worst public health disaster ever. AIDS is disturbing because it kills and because there is no vaccine for it and no cure. Like leprosy and the Black Death in the Dark Ages, AIDS seems to work in mysterious ways. It is transmitted by sexual contact, but little else is known about it.
Evidence from Africa and most recent statistics from the United States report that AIDS is not a "gay plague" and that the virus is in fact indifferent to its victim’s sexual orientation. More and more heterosexuals are contracting the disease, at a time when its rate of increase is slowing among homosexual males.
The AIDS virus does not attack only the immune system, it lives and replicates in the brain and the cerebrospinal fluid. It then is a nightmare process of brain atrophy. The effects include personality changes, epileptic fits, progressive memory loss, and complete neural failure. The average cost of medical care for one AIDS patient in the United States is $100,000.
How do you live with a family member who has AIDS? Give and help find for that person a will to live. Don’t forget the power of human contact and love. We all need to be loved and touched. Give your loved one a purpose in life. What is the most important thing to tell an AIDS patient and the family? To love and support each other. That’s the most important gift we have. No disease is more isolating, more lonely then AIDS. A parent’s love is the most important factor in comforting the AIDS victim.
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