Acquired immune deficiency Sjmdrome (AIDS), first identified in 1981, is an infectious disease character­ized by a failure of the body’s immunologic system.

As a result, affected individuals become increasingly vulnerable to many normally harmless microorgan­isms, eventually leading to severe morbidity and high mortality. The infection, spread sexually and through blood, has a high fatality rate, approaching IOO percent. Caused by a human retrovirus known as HIV-1, AIDS can now be found throughout the world - in both Western industrialized countries and also the developing nations of Africa and Latin America.

Although precise epidemiological data remain un­known, public health officials throughout the world have focused attention on this pandemic and its po­tentially catastrophic impact on health, resources, and social structure. Treatments for the disease have been developed, but there is currently no cure or vaccine.