An epidemic appears.T his year marks the 25th anniversary of the II AIDS epidemic in the United States, which was first reported in July 1981, though no one knew what it really was. The Advocate's first cover story on the disease appeared about seven months later. The article examined the host of medical problems being attributed to the syndrome, then known as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency gay-related immune deficiency, n the term adopted in the 1980s in reference to AIDS, when it was considered to affect only homosexual males. ), asking: "Is our 'lifestyle' hazardous to our health?" The rare skin cancer Kaposi's sarcoma and a number of other ailments that were killing hundreds of gay men prompted the government to seek a single cause, but HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. had not yet been identified. "The concentration of cases in homosexual men living in New York and California suggests causal factors relating to lifestyle or environment," said James Curran, a physician with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. in Atlanta. "Two widely discussed hypotheses involve infection with cytomegalovirus and the use of nitrate inhalants inhalants, n.pl 1. chemical vapors that are inhaled for their mind-altering effects. 2. in herbology, volatile herbal compounds that are delivered by holding a soaked pad to the nose and mouth, by placing the herbs in steaming water, or ." |
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