Introduction:
AIDS is a life and death issue. To have the AIDS disease is at present a
sentence of slow but inevitable death. I've already lost one friend to
AIDS. I may soon lose others. My own sexual behavior and that of many of my
friends has been profoundly altered by it. In my part of the country, one
man in 10 may already be carrying the AIDS virus. While the figures may
currently be less in much of the rest of the country, this is changing
rapidly. There currently is neither a cure, nor even an effective
treatment, and no vaccine either. But there are things that have been
PROVEN immensely effective in slowing the spread of this hideously lethal
disease. In this essay I hope to present this information. History and
Overview:
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Defficiency Disease. It is caused by a virus.
The disease originated somewhere in Africa about 20 years ago.
HIV/AIDS Support Group in Rural Kenya
English: South Africa HIV & AIDS Orphanage
English: AIDS in Africa Deutsch: AIDS in AfrikaThere it
first appeared as a mysterious ailment afflicting primarily heterosexuals
of both sexes. It probably was spread especially fast by primarily female
prostitutes there. AIDS has already become a crisis of STAGGERING
proportions in parts of Africa. In Zaire, it is estimated that over twenty
percent of the adults currently carry the virus. That figure is increasing.
And what occurred there will, if no cure is found, most likely occur here
among heterosexual folks.
AIDS was first seen as a disease of gay males in this country. This was
a result of the fact that gay males in this culture in the days before AIDS
had an average of 200 to 400 new sexual contacts per year. This figure was
much higher than common practice among heterosexual (straight) men or
women. In addition, it turned out that rectal sex was a...