* Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
* This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors.
* The time between infection and the appearance of symptoms tends to be much longer, allowing more opportunities for these microorganisms to be transmitted to other hosts. The period between infection and the appearance of AIDS can take from 7 to 12 years.
* AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children.

History:

* Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

* AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.

* The symptoms of AIDS are primarily the result of conditions that do not normally develop in individuals with healthy immune systems
* Most of these conditions are infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that are normally controlled by the elements of the immune system that HIV damages.
* A person may remain asymptomatic, feel, and appear healthy for even years even though he or she is infected with HIV. While he or she does not exhibit AIDS, the immune system starts to be impaired.
* The person may exhibit neurological symptoms such as memory loss, altered gait, depression, sleep disorders or chronic diarrhea.
* This set of symptoms is often called AIDS-related Complex (ARC) by clinicians. As the symptom progress, the patient becomes an AIDS patient.

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Twenty years ago, the word “AIDS” struck terror in Americans. Death could hide in a drop of blood.

Today, the power of word has faded: Saying “AIDS” aloud makes most people uncomfortable, not afraid. Studies find fewer Americans see acquired immune deficiency syndrome as a grave national problem.

Yet the problem still sends more than 18,000 Americans a year to their graves.

Early in the epidemic, when HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — happened in this region, most didn’t hear about it. No longer: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the highest number of Americans living with AIDS, the highest number of deaths among those with AIDS and the most new AIDS diagnoses are in the South.

In AIDS’ early days, it was confined to certain groups. Today, the virus’s reach is much broader. Though there still are some groups whose overall risk is greater, that varies by region: In East Tennessee, the gay white man is still overwhelmingly the face of HIV; in Memphis, blacks are four times more likely to be infected than are whites.

If anything positive could be said about such a destructive virus, it might be that it has united people of different backgrounds, races, religions and sexual orientations. But, as those affected will tell you, there’s still a long fight ahead.

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