History Of the Aids Drugs

Introduction

In 1981 Kaposi’s Sarcoma was thought to only affect older people and was a form of benign cancer. In March of 1981, there were eight cases of a more aggressive form of the Kaposi’s Sarcoma cancer that was affecting gay men in New York. At the same time there were more cases both in California and New York of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia or PCP. There were so many new cases being reported that the CDC finally took notice and this is where the alarm of a new disease possibly affecting only gay men was first being recognized. This was the beginning of the Aids epidemic that scared many people all over the world. Very little was known about the disease and it was a little while before any of the Aids drugs were introduced to help control the symptoms of the disease.

History

In 1982, this new disease still did not have a name and medical professionals were still confused about what to call it. There was still very little known about the disease and how it was spreading and this was causing the public great concerns. There were more cases popping up around the world and by July 453 cases were reported in 23 different states. It was then reported that cases were showing up in Hemophiliacs and in other countries and this is when it was known that not only gay men were getting the disease. It would be a while before medical professionals figured out that everyone was at risk, but the risks were bigger for certain groups that included gay men, drug abusers that shared needles, females that had several sexual partners and did not use condoms for protection, people getting blood transfusions and babies were getting it from their mothers during birth. Still there was little known about Aids or HIV and how to treat people since most were not responding to the drugs that were taking care of the PCP were not touching this and people were still dying and the disease was still spreading.

Features

In 1985, the first blood test was introduced to help detect Aids in a patient. The first aids drug repairing was being smuggled into the United States from Mexico. It would not be until September of 1986 that Azidothymidine or AZT was shown to slow down the progression of HIV. Patients were divided in two different groups one group was given AZT and the other group was given a placebo. Only one person given AZT died and this was the first major break through on how to treat HIV/Aids. Today since more is known about HIV the aids drugs on the market have helped people that test positive for HIV. Being treated for HIV and having that under control will help a person from getting full blown Aids. Of course people also have to be more pro-active in their own lives and be careful of the environments that they out themselves in.

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