Following the discovery of HIV-1 as the cause of epidemic AIDS in the United States, Europe, and Asia, patients in West Africa with AIDS-like symptoms were identified whose sera reacted more strongly…

Education is the only means of HIV prevention currently available. Over the past few years significant efforts have been directed toward the development of an effective vaccine against HIV. Although substantial progress has been achieved,…

In July 1990, the first case of possible transmission of HIV from an infected health care worker (dentist) to his patients was reported. Six patients are believed to…

Transmission of HIV in the health care delivery setting has been the subject of intense investigation throughout the course of the epidemic. The percentage of health care workers with AIDS…

HIV has been transmitted via transfusion of single-donor blood and blood products, including whole blood, fresh frozen plasma, packed red blood cells, cryoprecipitate, clotting factors, and platelets. Prior to May 1985,…

The primary mode of HIV transmission in IVDUs is sharing of contaminated needles and syringes. Sharing of injection paraphernalia (“works”) is commonplace among IVDUs and is reinforced by the cultural economic…

Sexual Transmission
HIV infection is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Like other STDs, HIV spreads bidirectionally and appears to be transmitted from male to female and female to male with…

Prevention of HIV infection requires a thorough understanding of the modes of viral transmission, the populations at risk, and the established guidelines to avoid high-risk exposures. HIV has been identified in virtually every…

Throughout the world, the above routes of transmission have accounted for the overwhelming majority of HIV infections, but there has been considerable concern about other theoretical modes of transmission, especially through “casual” contact…

Within 3 years after the syndrome was recognized in the United States, cases of AIDS were reported from every continent. By November of 1997, more than 1.7 million cases…

HIV is transmitted from an infected woman to her fetus or newborn during pregnancy or delivery or through breast-feeding. HIV detected in fetal tissues and HIV isolated in cord blood provide suggestive evidence that transmission…

HIV is transmitted to IDUs by parenteral exposure to contaminated injection equipment, including needles. Risk factors for infection include frequency of needle sharing, duration of injecting drug use,…

Exposure to HIV-infected blood poses a definite risk for HIV infection for health care, laboratory, and home health care workers. Large prospective collaborative studies have found the risk of seroconversion following…

The identification of HIV-1 as the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) just 3 years after the clinical syndrome initially was described represents a remarkable scientific achievement that had its roots…

The hallmark of AIDS is a selective depletion of CD4+ helper-inducer lymphocytes. This defect is believed to result largely from the selective tropism of HIV-1 for this population of cells based on the high affinity…

Retroviral diseases are typically characterized by restricted viral gene expression, latency, and lifelong persistence of virus in the face of substantial host immune responses. From cohort studies of individuals infected with HIV-1 at known points…

The first cases of what has become known as the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported in mid-1981 from Los Angeles, California. One month following these five reports of Pneumocystis carinii…

The HIV-1 genome, like other retroviral genomes, is diploid, consisting of two identical viral RNA molecules assembled in a hydrogen-bonded 70S complex. These genomic subunits are plus strands of viral RNA…

Trends in reported AIDS cases do not provide a complete picture of the prevalence of the public health problem that HIV infection poses for a population group,…

By December 1997, 641,086 cases of AIDS in adults and children had been reported to the CDC; and >390,000 were reported to have died, including >80% of those…

Through December of 1997, the United Nations AIDS Programme (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that over 30 million people are living with HIV infection worldwide, with…

HIV is transmitted primarily through sexual contact, parenteral exposure to blood or blood products, and perinatally from infected mothers to their infants.

Sexual Transmission

The predominant mode of HIV transmission throughout the world…

Recent studies in persons with long-term non-progressing infection suggest that the immune response to HIV may be of sufficient magnitude, in rare cases, to successfully contain the virus and prevent the development of…

The initial phase of HIV-1 infection is characterized by high-level viremia, associated with the ability to detect the viral core protein p24 in the serum. However, soon after infection the level of viremia…