Word: polio
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...predicts, the total number of cases will reach 270,000 over the next five years, while total AIDS deaths will rise to 179,000. Fearsome as that count is, it falls short of the tolls taken by the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 (500,000 U.S. deaths) and by polio in the mid-'40s to mid-'50s (360,000 cases with 20,000 deaths). But then again, AIDS is still gathering steam...
...fear of deadly plague seemed to die out after the control of polio in the early 1960s, but the word has been applied to AIDS. In Africa it is a heterosexual disease rapidly infecting the heart of the continent. Around the U.S., health officials are calling for enormous increases in AIDS testing for pregnant women and even for couples applying for marriage licenses. More than any measures, however, health officials at every level are pleading for what is very nearly a social revolution. Says U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen: "I can't emphasize too strongly...
...issues raised by AIDS drug and vaccine testing, Dr. Jean Bernard, 79, chairman on medical ethics of France's Consultative Committee for Life Sciences and Health, urges them to take the long view. He reminds colleagues of the tremendous pressures 30 years ago to cut corners to get a polio vaccine. But, he notes, thousands of lives were saved when researchers took the time to get it right. "The point is," he sums up, "that you have to avoid passion. You must follow normal procedures...
...that flu marches on, while other viral scourges such as polio and measles have been largely conquered in the developed world? The vanquished viruses, it seems, were relatively stable, seldom changing their structure. This enabled their victims, once infected, to develop permanent immunity and allowed scientists to develop vaccines that were effective year after year. The influenza virus, however, is constantly changing the configuration of its surface proteins. Because of these changes, immune-system antibodies, developed in response to either a vaccination or a previous case of flu, fail to recognize and attack the altered virus. As a result...
Still, despite the viruses' apparent potential for good, their much greater capacity for evil has been amply demonstrated. Smallpox. Yellow fever. Rabies. Polio. And now the cruel AIDS epidemic. Concludes David Baltimore: "You could get rid of all the viruses from the world and the world would not be the worse...