AIDS crisis

The epidemic of the immunodeficiency disease AIDS, which began in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1930s as a mutation of the chimpanzee disease SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), which was named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), found its way to the shores of the United States as early as 1960, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in young gay men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. This strain was called HIV-1. A second strain, called HIV-2 was discovered; it is presumed to have mutated from SIVsmm, a strain of the Simian virus present naturally in the sooty mangabey, a monkey found primarily along the African coast from Senegal to Ghana. HIV-2 is common in West Africa, but is much rarer in the United States than HIV-1, which is more virulent and progresses more quickly to the full-blown AIDS disease.

Originally the disease was called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), but by 1982, after scientific discovery that the disease was also transmitted by other means, plus political pressure from those who felt the name unfairly stigmatized homosexuals, the designation was officially changed to AIDS. In Africa, where the vast majority of cases have always been (about 20 times as many cases as in the United States), the disease has always been found in the general population.

Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily a "drug cocktail" of protease inhibitors, and education programs help people avoid infection. For the first few decades, infected foreign nationals were turned back at the U.S. border to help prevent additional infections. The number of U.S. deaths from AIDS have declined sharply since the early years of the disease's presentation domestically. In the United States, 1.2 million people live with an HIV infection, about 1/8th of whom are unaware of their infection.

As of 2016 about 675,000 people have died of HIV/AIDS in the USA since the beginning of the HIV epidemic.

With improved treatments and better prophylaxis against opportunistic infections, death rates have significantly declined.

The overall death rate among persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in New York City decreased by 62% from 2001 to 2012.

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Wikipedia