Transmission of AIDS

Abstract

The epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has become an epidemic of fear.¹ Although our understanding of the disease has been progressing rapidly, the new knowledge has often produced more public concern than relief. The identification of the etiologic agent as a virus — although of critical scientific importance — did little to quell the fears of either the medical community or the general population. Instead, people reacted to the fact that AIDS is caused by a virus with a hysteria reminiscent of another viral infection — the polio epidemic of the early 1950s.As each new observation was announced, . . .