Record Detail Back
The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States
- Share to:
An epidemic is both a medical and a social occurrence. Medically, it is the appearance of a serious, often fatal, disease in numbers far greater than normal. Socially, it is an event that disrupts the life of a community and causes uncertainty, fear, blame, and flight. The etymology of the word itself suggests the broader, social meaning: epi demos, in ancient Greek, means ''upon the people or the community." The epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)—which was recognized in the United States in 1981, continues today, and will continue into the foreseeable future—mirrors epidemics of the past. The medical meaning of the epidemic has been revealed in the sobering numbers reported in epidemiologic studies. During 1991, 45,506 new AIDS cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which brought the cumulative total of cases in the United States to 206,392; 133,233 (65 percent) deaths have been tallied (Centers for Disease Control, 1992). It is estimated that 1 million people are currently infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS (Centers for Disease Control, 1990), but this number is very uncertain (see Technical Note at the end of this chapter).
Panel on Monitoring the Social Impact of the AIDS Epidemic, National Research Council - Organizational Body
0-309-58386-1
NONE
Management
English
1993
1-337
LOADING LIST...
LOADING LIST...