AIDS

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Most serious of all the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It is caused by the retrovirus human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and is transmitted in body fluids, such as blood, saliva, semen, and vaginal secretions. AIDS is the world's most deadly STD and the fourth leading global cause of death. Unlike other diseases, which typically claim most lives among young children and the elderly, AIDS particularly hits those of working age. This has resulted in huge demographic changes in the countries most severely affected by AIDS, causing widespread social and economic hardship.

Diagnosis of AIDS
The HIV virus destroys the immune system, leaving the victim vulnerable to diseases that would not otherwise develop. Diagnosis of AIDS is based on the appearance of rare tumours or infections in people unexpected to suffer from such illness. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, for instance, normally seen only in the malnourished or those whose immune systems have been deliberately suppressed, is common among AIDS victims and is for them a leading cause of death.

Treatment
In the West, the time-lag between infection with HIV and the development of AIDS seems to be about ten years. However, it is far more rapid in developing countries, where roughly 50% of AIDS victims die within three years. There is no cure for the disease. In 1995 it was discovered that using a recently developed AIDS drug called 3TC in conjunction with zidovudine (formerly AZT) reduced levels of virus in the blood by ten times. In the West, the use of a three-drug cocktail has had dramatic effects, suppressing levels of the virus to a point where infected people can lead normal lives, although the drugs can have unpleasant side effects. In Africa, triple therapy drug treatment is not widely used because it is so expensive. Drugs companies have reduced the cost of medication, but the price still takes into account the costs of research and development for new drugs. However, in April 2001 pharmaceutical companies dropped their court case against the South African government over the provision of cheaper generic drugs for AIDS.

Research has found that the HIV virus has begun to mutate to become resistant to the current drug cocktail. Studies in 1999 on 11,990 HIV patients in the USA found more than one-quarter to be resistant to all three classes of HIV drugs. Likewise, in the UK, 30% of new HIV infections in 2000 were found to be caused by viruses that are resistant to at least one of the currently available treatment drugs.

Worldwide statistics
Estimates published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) put the number of adults living with the HIV virus globally at the end of 2003 to be 37 million. A further 2.5 million children are also thought to be infected with the virus. During 2003, 3 million people died from HIV/AIDS and another 5 million are thought to have become infected with HIV. Around 95% of the people infected with HIV live in the developing world.

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