I want to know how scientist found out about AIDS
2007-10-23 08:42:10 · 4 answers · asked by Haley :) 2 in Health ➔ Diseases & Conditions ➔ STDs
They began to notice cases of relatively rare illnesses that normally would never affect an adult with a healthy immune system (not a transplant recipient, someone on cancer chemotherapy, or a very old or very young (premie) person.
Things like PCP pneumonia (lung infection), Kaposi's Sarcoma (skin cancer). We now refer to these types of infections as Opportunistic Infections or AIDS-dfining illnesses (there are about 30+ specific OIs)
With further testing it was found that there was some sort of underlying immune dysfunction allowing the above to occur. The CD4 cells (an important part of the immune system) were very low, or non-existent in some cases.
From here it was years before the cause was isolated (HIV), though it was commonly thought to be viral in nature before this.
Hope this helps
2007-10-23 09:29:26 · answer #1 · answered by BJC 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They discovered a virus called HIV in 1984 that was present in all patients presenting with a strange immune deficiency first observed in 1981. Further tests proved that HIV was killing the immune system's cells and leading to AIDS, which is defined as having a depleted immune system and several opportunistic infections.
2007-10-23 12:52:36 · answer #2 · answered by Connor 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the test mokey died,
2007-10-23 11:34:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
google "history of HIV"
2007-10-23 08:46:47 · answer #4 · answered by essentiallysolo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋