Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Currently under major revision

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (usually referred to as AIDS) is a collection of diseases and symptoms caused by long-term infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The illness was first recognized in the early 1980s

The characteristic symptoms were opportunistic infections that otherwise affected only people whose immune systems had been damaged, for example, organ transplant recipients who are treated with immunosuppressive drugs.

But AIDS had and has affected only a minority of homosexual men. (MSM is the term used in government documents now, for "men who have sex with men".) It turns out that what was actually shared by all the early AIDS patients was a "fast-lane" lifestyle: abuse of recreational drugs, and extraordinary promiscuity resulting in recurring infections with many diseases and consequent indiscriminate and excessive resort to antibiotics--all of which are immunosuppressive. That is why non-homosexual drug abusers make up such a large proportion of AIDS cases.

The currently official view is that AIDS is the consequence of infection by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which is spread through contact with body fluids from an infected individual. However, a sizeable number of scientists and other interested people believe that a causative connection between HIV and AIDS has never been proven. Details about these "re-thinkers" and their arguments can be found at several reliable websites: http://aras.ab.ca/index.php, http://www.reviewingaids.org/awiki/index.php/Main_Page, http://rethinkingaids.com.93.seekdotnet.com/. An older website, no longer being updated, has a useful bibliography of books and other writings by rethinkers: http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/