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  • Title: AIDS: the frightening facts.
    Author: Ryan M.
    Journal: New Afr; 1986 Jan; ():7-8. PubMed ID: 12314086.
    Abstract:
    Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has succeeded in creating an unprecedented wave of panic among the Western public and some sections of the medical profession. Research clearly shows that the AIDS virus is transmissible in a number of ways: from man to woman and vice versa during sexual intercourse, through semen and possibly vaginal fluids; from mothers to their children through breast milk; through exchange of saliva (but not through just a casual kiss); and through blood and blood products. Far from being exclusive to homosexuals, studies in Europe have shown that female virus carriers can transmit AIDS to healthy men through sexual intercourse--the predominant means by which transmission appears to occur in Central Africa. Although cases of AIDS began being diagnosed in a few Central African countries at the beginning of the 1980s, at the same time as they were first being observed in Europe and North America, many commentators assumed that the virus originated in Africa. Yet, it is safe to say that the nature of the virus, let alone its origins, remains controversial among scientists and virologists. 1 supporter of the theory that the AIDS virus has African origins is Robert Gall of the US National Institute of Health (NIH). He is one of the co-discoverers of the virus, which he named HTLV3 (Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus 3). The virus also was discovered at France's Pasteur Institute by Luc Montaigner, who called it LAV (Lymphadenpathy Associated Virus). Gallo named the virus as he did because he believes it to be related to a pair of other viruses, HTLV1 and HTLV2, which like the AIDS virus attack the body's immunity system. Unlike AIDS, these 2 viruses, do not destroy the T-cells but cause them to replicate into cancer tumors. In Gallo's view, HTLV1 has long been endemic to some parts of Africa, from where he believes it spread via the slave trade to other parts of the world. Montaigner does not agree. He denies that the AIDS virus is related to either HTLV1 or HTLV2, claiming that ist shape and behavior makes it closer to a group of viruses known as lenti-viruses, so called because they can lie dormant in an animal host for between 5-20 years before becoming active. Prior to the appearance of AIDS, lenti-viruses were hardly ever found in humans. Due to this controversy, the virus has been HTLV3/LAV by the scientific community. What is evident from studies of the disease in Africa, Europe, and the US, is that there are no easy remedies for this highly complex syndrome. Nor is it possible to generalize about it from 1 country to another, let alone 1 continent from another. The way the disease presents itself in Zaire is different from the way it presents itself in Uganda, and both are very different from the way it presents itself in Europe and the US. In Zaire, chronic diarrhea, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and cryptococcal meningitis could all be symptoms of the AIDS patient. AIDS is a recognized public health problem in a number of Central African countries. In those areas where the disease's presence has been confirmed, sexual promiscuity has been singled out as a high risk factor for its transmission. In all affected countries, health authorities are aware of the need to launch health education campaigns.
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