Walsh & Hoyt: HIV Infection and AIDS

Infection with HIV-1 and, to a lesser extent, HIV-2, produces the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The first clinical description of AIDS and identification of the HIV-1 virus occurred in the United States and France in the 1980s; however, there is serologic evidence for the existence of HIV infections in humans dating to the 1950s in Africa. The AIDS pandemic can be broadly viewed as a series of multiple epidemics evolving from behavioral and social structures that permitted active transmission as well as viral biologic features such as viral mutation and recombination that prevented adequate therapy. To date, the largest numbers of HIV-1 infected individuals live in sub-Saharan Africa, where in some countries, 520% of the general population is infected. One of the most rapid areas of growth in HIV-1 infection in recent years is in Asia where, in the early 1990s, seroprevalence rates rose to high percentages of intravenous drug users or commercial sex workers.