Aids and stories

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV).[1][2][3]The illness interferes with the immune system, making people with AIDS much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not affect people with working immune systems. This susceptibility gets worse as the disease continues.HIV is transmitted in many ways, such as: sexual intercourse (including oral sex and anal sex); contaminated blood transfusions and hypodermic needles; and exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. It can be transmitted by any contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid that has the virus in it, such as the blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, or breast milk from an infected person.[4][5]The virus and disease are often referred to together as HIV/AIDS. The disease is a major health problem in many parts of the world, and is considered a pandemic, a disease outbreak that is not only present over a large area but is actively spreading.[6] In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there are 33.4 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 2.7 million new HIV infections per year and 2.0 million annual deaths due to AIDS.[7] In 2007, UNAIDS estimated: 33.2 million people worldwide were HIV positive; AIDS killed 2.1 million people in the course of that year, including 330,000 children, and 76% of those deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.[8] According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected since the start of the pandemic, with some 25 million deaths, and14 million orphaned children in southern Africa alone.[9]Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.[10][11]AIDS was first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.[12]Although treatments for HIV/AIDS can slow the course of the disease, there is no known cure or HIV vaccine. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the deaths and new infections from HIV/AIDS, but these drugs are expensive and the medications are not available in all countries.[13] Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.For HIV/AIDS in the territory controlled by the Republic of China, see HIV/AIDS in Taiwan.An HIV/AIDS pandemic exists in China. Much of the current spread of the human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) in China has been through intravenous drug use and prostitution. In China, the number of people affected by HIV has been estimated at between 430,000 and 1.5 million,[1] with some estimates going much higher.[2][3] In many rural areas of China during the 1990s, particularly in the province of Henan, hundreds of thousands up to millions of farmers and peasants were infected with HIV through participation in state-run blood collection programs in which contaminated equipment was reused.[4][5][6]The PRC is not yet near what many would consider a widespread AIDS epidemic, but the infection rate (incidence) has been rising sharply, and a serious outbreak in a country as large as the PRC could significantly impact the economies of both China and the world as a whole. The underlying government response to HIV/AIDS is now that of preemptive intervention.An official report published in February 2009 stated that in 2008, for the first time, HIV/AIDS was China's leading cause of death among infectious diseases. Nearly 7,000 people died from the disorder in the first nine months of 2008, a substantial increase—until three years prior to this, the total cumulative mortality was less than 8,000.According to the CIA World Factbook, the percentage of adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS in China is 0,1%, the same as in Japan and less than in many European Union countries such as the United Kingdom (0,2%) and Austria (0,3%).[7]1985年6月3日，北京的初夏刚刚涌上些许燥热。

一位阿根廷籍病人因严重肺部感染、呼吸衰竭被收入北京协和医院重症监护病房。

当晚，病人气管被切开，神智开始昏迷。

6月4日一大早，时任内科副主任的王爱霞教授就被请去会诊。

病人胸片为典型的肺孢子虫肺炎（PCP），病情进展异常迅速，“太典型了，艾滋病（AIDS）晚期！”，一个惊人的诊断马上跳入王爱霞的脑中。