SLIM

noun Also written slim (Health and Fitness) (More fully, Slim disease): the name used in Africa for Aids. Etymology: So named because of the severe weight loss associated with the disease. History and Usage: For history, see Aids. The disease probably originated in Africa and reached epidemic proportions in some African countries during the eighties, but the problems of these countries were less widely publicized in the West than the corresponding difficulties of the US and decommunized countries like Romania in dealing with Aids. A new disease has recently been recognised in rural Uganda. Because the major symptoms are weight loss and diarrhoea, it is known locally as slim disease. Lancet 19 Oct. 1985, p. 849 Because it is the skilled ÷lite...who have most money to spend on womanising, it is this group which is suffering the worst ravages of Slim. Independent on Sunday 1 Apr. 1990, Sunday Review section, p. 10