The Relationship between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Draft)

DRAFT
women, drug-using heterosexual men, and infants have all developed AIDS with only one
common risk factor exposure to HIV. Laboratory workers accidentally exposed to highly
concentrated HIV, and health care workers exposed to HIV-infected blood have developed
immunosuppression and AIDS with no other risk factor for immune dysfunction. Scientists
have now used PCR to find HIV in virtually every patient with AIDS, and to show that HIV is
present in large and increasing amounts even in the pre-AIDS stages of HIV disease.
Researchers also have demonstrated a correlation between the amount of HIV in the body
and the progression of the aberrant immunologic processes seen in people with AIDS.
Despite this plethora of evidence, the notion that HIV does not cause AIDS continues
to find a wide audience in the popular press, with potential negative impact on HIV-infected
individuals and on public health efforts to control the epidemic. HIV-infected individuals may
be convinced to forego anti-HIV treatments that can forestall the onset of the serious
infections and malignancies of AIDS (Edelman et al., 1991; Concar, 1991). Pregnant HIVinfected women may dismiss the option of taking AZT, which can reduce the likelihood of
transmission of HIV from mother to infant (Connor et al., 1994c; Boyer et al., 1994).
People may be dissuaded from being tested for HIV, thereby missing the opportunity,
early in the course of disease, for treatment with drugs to prevent AIDS-related infections such
as PCP. Such prophylactic measures prolong survival and improve the quality of life of HIVinfected individuals (CDC 1992b; Chaisson et al., 1992; Graham et al., 1992; Saah et al.,
1994).
Most troubling is the prospect that individuals will discount the threat of HIV and
continue to engage in risky sexual behavior and needle sharing. If public health messages on
AIDS prevention are diluted by the misconception that HIV is not responsible for AIDS,
otherwise preventable cases of HIV infection and AIDS may occur, adding to the global
tragedy of the epidemic.

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