AIDS

acronym Also written AIDS (Health and Fitness) Short for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a complex condition which is thought to be caused by a virus called HIV and which destroys a person's ability to fight infections. Etymology: An acronym, formed on the initial letters of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. History and Usage: The condition was first noticed by doctors at the very end of the seventies and was described under the name acquired immune deficiency state in 1980, although later research has shown that a person died from Aids as long ago as 1959 and that the virus which causes it may have existed in Africa for a hundred years or more. Colloquially the condition was also sometimes referred to as GRID (gay-related immune disease) in the US before the name Aids became established. The US Center for Disease Control first used the name acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the acronym Aids in September 1982, and by 1984 the disease was already reaching epidemic proportions in the US and coming to be known as the scourge of the eighties. At first Aids was identified as principally affecting two groups: first, drug users who shared needles, and second, male homosexuals, giving rise to the unkind name gay plague, which was widely bandied about in newspapers during the mid eighties. Once the virus which causes the immune breakdown which can lead to Aids was identified and it became clear that this was transmitted in body fluids, sexual promiscuity in general was blamed for its rapid spread. These discoveries prompted a concerted and ill-received government advertising campaign in the UK which aimed to make the general public aware of the risks and how to avoid them; this resulted, amongst other things, in the revival of the word condom in everyday English. The acronym soon came to be written by some in the form Aids (rather than AIDS) and thought of as a proper noun; it was also very quickly used attributively, especially in Aids virus (a colloquial name for HIV) and the adjective Aids-related. By 1984 doctors had established that infection with the virus could precede the onset of any symptoms by some months or years, and identified three distinct phases of the syndrome: lymphadenopathy syndrome developed first, followed by Aids-related complex (ARC), a phase in which preliminary symptoms of fever, weight loss, and malaise become apparent; the later phase, always ultimately fatal, in which the body's natural defences against infection are broken down and tumours may develop, came to be known as full-blown Aids. Colloquially, the phases before the onset of full-blown Aids are sometimes called pre-Aids. The language of Aids (Aidspeak) became both complex and emotive as the eighties progressed, with the word Aids itself being used imprecisely in many popular sources to mean no more than infection with HIV--a usage which, in the eyes of those most closely concerned with Aids, could only be expected to add to the stigmatization and even victimization of already isolated social groups. The Center for Disease Control published a carefully defined spectrum of stages, in an attempt to make the position clear: HIV antibody seronegativity (i.e. the absence of antibodies against HIV in the blood), HIV antibody seropositivity (see antibody-positive), HIV asymptomaticity, lymphadenopathy syndrome, Aids-related complex, and full-blown Aids. In order to lessen the emotive connotations of some tabloid language about Aids, pressure groups tried to discourage the use of Aids victim and replace it with person with Aids (see PWA). The terminology had become so complex and tricky that those who could find their way about it and understood the issues came to be known as Aids-literate. At the time of writing no cure has been found for Aids. In just one year the list of people at risk from AIDS has lengthened from male homosexuals, drug-abusers and Haitians, to include the entire population [of the USA]. New Scientist 3 Feb. 1983, p. 289 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis...will look at potential drug treatments in animals for an AIDS-related form of pneumonia, pneumocystis carinii. New York Times 1 May 1983, section 1, p. 26 Buddies' project is not to examine the construction of gay identity but to take apart the mythology of AIDS as a 'gay plague'. Film Review Annual 1986, p. 160 Of 34 mothers who gave birth to children with Aids at his hospital, only four had any symptoms of the disease or Aids-related complex, a milder form. Daily Telegraph 3 Feb. 1986, p. 5 Like many well-educated professionals who are sexually active, the man had become an AIDS encyclopedia without changing his habits. Atlantic Feb. 1987, p. 45 See also Slim