AIDS
Causes and Growth of a Killer Disease
In the middle of the 1970s a new disease emerged. It was called AIDS,
or acquiredimmune deficiency syndrome. Scientists and doctors didn’t know anything about it at
first but until today AIDS has killed 25 million people and about 50 million may beinfected.
AIDS occurs all over the world, but southern Africa, Asia and the United States have had more
AIDS victims than other countries.
Causes of AIDS
AIDS is caused by a virus called HIV (humanimmunodeficiencyvirus). It enters the body when you
get into contact with infected blood or other body fluids. Coughing, sneezing or handshaking do
not spread AIDS. And you don’t have to be afraid of being in the same room with an infected
person either.
HIV kills white blood cells, part of the body’s immune system, which fight off diseases. Over many
years the body gets weaker and weaker. Diseases that normally do not hurt you may kill you. The
AIDS virus attacks the nervous system and can cause eye or brain damage. People with AIDS often
get pneumonia and die. At first you may not know that you are infected because you don’t feel
anything. But even then you may pass on AIDS to other people.
Although doctors and scientists have been working on a cure for a long time, no vaccine has been
found yet. With the right treatment you can live with HIV for many years. However people can
prevent HIV infection by keeping out of contact with bodies that may be infected.
In the 1980s AIDS also spread through blood transfusions. Today, doctors make blood tests before
giving it to those who need it.
History of AIDS
AIDS probably started in Africa, where people didn't know that it existed. American doctors
first identified the virus in 1981. It came from a chimpanzee in western Africa. The virus entered
humans when people who hunted animals got in touch with infected blood. In the early
1980s homosexual men, mostly in the United States were infected. Other early AIDS patients were
drug users who got the disease from dirty needles.
Freddy Mercury - A Famous AIDS Victim
Within ten years after the first case, the disease spread all over the world. It was clear that all kinds
of people could get the disease. Patients were infected by blood transfusions; women by their male
sexual partners, children by their mothers before they were born. The public was alarmed when
famous people, like tennis star Arthur Ashe or Queen lead singer Freddy Mercury became
AIDS victims.
Today two thirds of all HIV infected are in central and southern Africa. Another 20% are in Asia and
the Pacific. Experts say about 14,000 people are infected every day.
Vocabulary
acquire = to get: elde etmek immune system = the system by which the
body protects itself from diseases: bağışıklık
although = while: willst, however: ancak
sistemi
attack = hit,harm: vurmak
infect = to make a disease or illness go from
blood transfusion = to put new blood into one person to another: bulaştırma
another animal or person: kan nakli
infected blood = blood that carries HIV in it:
brain = the organ inside your head that enfekte kan
controls how you move, feel and think: beyin
nervous system = all the nerves in your
cause = lead to, reason for: sebep olmak body: sinir sistemi
chimpanzee = a small intelligent ape: occur = happen, take place: olmak
şempanze
pneumonia = a very serious illness of the
cure = a medicine that makes a person lungs in which it is very difficult to breathe:
healthy again, remedy: çare zatüre
deficiency = if you do not have enough of sneeze = air suddenly comes out of your
something, lack of: eksiklik nose and you make a noise; it happens when
disease = illness, sickness: hastalık you have a cold: hapşurmak
fluid = liquid, something that is watery: sıvı spread = to go from one place to another,
disseminate: yayılmak
get in touch = get in contact with, connect
with: temas syndrome = disease: sendrom
homosexual men = men who have sex with treatment = something that doctors do to
other men: gay cure someone: tedavi
however = but, yet: yine de vaccine = something that is injected into
your body or blood and protects you from a
identify = here: to observe something for the
disease:aşı
first time, detect: tespit etmek
victim = a person who has AIDS: mağdur
