Word: viruses
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...question often phrased, "Will the AIDS virus spread to the 'general population'?" is really a poorly stated mix of two other questions. First, what are the characteristics of a population that can sustain infection with the AIDS virus? And second, who--besides gay men and intravenous drug users--shares these characteristics...
...little is known to permit a conclusion as to whether these conditions are met by heterosexual people in the United States. Authorities, however, believe that heterosexual contact is instrumental in the spread of the AIDS virus in central Africa...
CURRENTLY, THERE is good reason to believe that the AIDS virus is most efficiently transmitted in two ways. Through the sharing of needles, (but the practice apparently is much less hazardous when the sticks are minor and blood is not passed through the barrel of the needle). And second, through rectal or vaginal exposure to ejaculate carrying the virus...
...third situation, exposure of the penis to virus carried in vaginal or rectal fluid is probably less risky, but the risk is not zero. In any case, the cumulative risk of acquiring infection through repeating the first two events--and possibly also the third--is high...
Once infection is established, the risk of developing AIDS is about 15 to 25 percent within six years and at least that for developing virus-related symptoms outside the standard definition of AIDS. Although there is no data on infection that last longer than six years, there is no reason to believe that the risk of developing symptoms will diminish with time. People with symptoms of infection have been observed only to get worse or stay the same; they don't get better as time goes...