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AIDS and YOU (May 1987)

By Martin H. Goodman MD



(this essay is in the public domain)





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. There 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...