Editorial

AIDS—No Longer a Death Sentence, Still a Challenge

Authors: James K. Schmitt, MD, Charles P. Stuckey, MD

Abstract

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now found in every country of the world, infecting 56 million persons worldwide. 1 Twenty million persons have died as a result of HIV alone. In the United States 1.1 million persons are infected with HIV. Before the advent of antiretroviral drugs in 1987 most patients with AIDS eventually succumbed to opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii and cytomegalovirus, malignancies such as lymphoma or Kaposi sarcoma, or the direct effects of the virus on the central nervous system and other organs. The average lifespan of the untreated AIDS patient was about 10 years.

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