How did AIDS: a case history, which began with handsome gay

Several years have passed since the first cases of AIDS before the doctors were able to accurately describe this disease and find out how she can get. The doctors called it "the immunodeficiency of homosexuals", and the priests — God's punishment, which will take all prostitutes, gays and drug addicts. But over time, it became clear that the problem of AIDS does not apply to specific social groups and the list of HIV-positive can get every.

For the first time since the disease was faced American Dr. Michael Gottlieb from Los Angeles. In the fall of 1980, he was summoned to advise the dying man with pneumonia. The patient was a homosexual 33 years old and looked very emaciated, pale, almost gray. The man kept coughing complained of chest pain.

Dr. Gottlieb carefully examined the patient and found that severe lung disease, caused by a harmless microorganism, Pneumocystis who can't even harm a nursing baby. But why the patient died under the influence of this microbe?

The tests showed that the man has absolutely no immune cells that are meant to fight the disease. With this situation, the doctor was faced for the first time in his practice to save a patient has failed.

After the death of the patient Gottlieb long could not calm down and was wondering what is immunodeficiency. He was inquiring about other similar cases and soon met with Dr. Golam Wiseman, who has worked with young homosexuals.

His patients for several years suffered from diseases caused by a relatively harmless microorganisms. No drugs did not help them, and every day they felt worse.

Analyses showed that in men, as the patient Gottlieb, had no immunity, which is to destroy the infection. Besides, to Gottlieb asked several Pneumocystis patients with pneumonia. At this point, the doctors decided to report the situation to the Center for disease control (CDC). 5 June 1981 in print appeared first article about the disease of American homosexuals.

In the summer of 1981 in a hospital in San Francisco (unofficial gay capital of USA) brought the man with the creepy red-and-blue spots on the skin. The doctor was terrified that the patient turned out to be the rarest form of skin cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma. Before she had met only in the elderly, and the doctors decided that the young man has earned her on of radioactive production.

But they were wrong — patient worked as a gay prostitute. In a strange infection he lost his immunity, leading to tumor, which developed into a sarcoma. By September 1981, the US has been registered 107 cases of unexplained immunodeficiency. Among the cases: 95 homosexuals, heterosexuals 6, 5 bisexual men and one woman.

The researchers consulted and gave the disease is not very impartial title — GRID. Gay-Related immune deficiency, immunodeficiency, homosexuals.

The study of disease needed the money, but the new leadership of the White house, led by Ronald Reagan ignored the GRID, and generally cut the entire health budget. Then the Director of the Center for disease control and bill Foege went to the trick and established its own, financially independent "project For the study of Kaposi's sarcoma and opportunistic infections".

In fact, scientists have engaged in the study of immunodeficiency.

First it was necessary to figure out what the cause of the disease and how it is contagious. Since the disease is revolved mainly around the gay community, the scientists decided that the more the patient homosexual lovers, the worse it is, the immune system and the more severe GRID.

They also suggested that the cause of the disease lies in the fact that the immunity of gay men can not withstand too many pathogens that are transmitted sexually. Exhausted by the long struggle of the immune cells die and people die from a minor infections.

Of course, this formulation did not like homosexuals. They said that it was a provocation designed to deprive them of the right to "free love". Everyone who talked about the deadly disease, fall into the category of fools, homophobic and alarmist. In real danger, no one believed.

Meanwhile, the disease is actively spreading in 1981, cases of immune deficiency was identified in Europe (36 people). Most of them were French, but soon the disease recorded in Haiti and in Africa.

Gradually researchers, it became clear that the immunodeficiency is not only gay. The disease is recorded and men of traditional orientation, as well as in women (and not only prostitutes, but also a respectable married women). Soon immunodeficiency began to spread among drug users — rumors that the disease is associated with blood transfusions.

Comparing all the facts, the researchers decided to rename the disease. 27 July 1982 "immunodeficiency homosexuals" has become a politically correct "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome" (AIDS).

The number of patients is growing, and scientists began to suspect that AIDS is still contagious. However, direct evidence has not yet been — animal experiments did not give results, the injection of infected human blood on the health of the animals was not affected. To instill healthy human immunodeficiency nobody dared.

For the first time to prove the infectiousness of the disease could the independent expert on statistics epidemics of San Francisco Andrew moss. He found out about all cases of immunodeficiency and to build a graph illustrating the annual incidence of AIDS. The result was terrifying — AIDS has spread much faster than any non-communicable diseases, but quite comparable with hepatitis that is transmitted through sexual contact or blood.

But the results of the study did not disclose conservative scholars considered them unfounded and started looking for errors in the calculations. Meanwhile, the people continued to engage in unprotected sex and injecting drugs in one syringe.

Another discovery belongs to the same "group on Kaposi's sarcoma". They traveled to America, searching for patients with AIDS and asked tricky questions. Asked about the way of life, attitudes towards drugs, made a list of all lovers.

It soon became clear that husbands and wives usually get sick at the same time that they are injecting, and not Smoking addicts. In addition, in patients with promiscuous at least one of the sexual partners necessarily have AIDS. Based on these data, sociologists have made a large map with the names of lovers, of cases of immunodeficiency — they were connected by arrows.

It turned out that the greatest number of points leads to a certain Gaëtan Dugas. Really it began with AIDS? The researchers made a mistake, Gaetan ahead of 15-year-old from St. Louis, who died in 1968 from an unknown disease. The diagnosis put him in hindsight, checking for AIDS sample of frozen blood. There were others, but that Gaetan Dugas remained in history as "patient zero".

Dugas was a young canadian, who worked as a steward on the French-canadian airlines, often in San Francisco, and in Haiti (it is believed that from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic). The guy was incredibly handsome and had a huge following. The disease first manifested itself in 1979 — Dugas swollen lymph nodes, pursued his weakness, and the young man decided that it was the flu.

Later he managed with difficulty to recover from Pneumocystis pneumonia. Two years later he was diagnosed with "Kaposi's sarcoma", Dugas and then realized that he had serious health problems. But even during his illness charming gay continued to sleep with their admirers. He died of AIDS in 1984 for the entire life of His had over 2500 lovers.

Once it finally became clear that AIDS is contagious, scientists immediately began to search for the causative agent. In 1983, Luc Montagnier proved that the cause of the mysterious AIDS — tiny microorganism of the family of retroviruses, the subfamily of lentiviruses (from the Latin lente — "slowly"). There, in addition to the AIDS virus, are pathogens of slow and fatal infections in sheep and horses.

A new microorganism has got several names from different laboratories: LAV (lymphoadenovirus — lymphadenosis), HTLV‑2 (human T‑lymphotropic virus human T‑lymphotropic virus) and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus — the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV). Subsequently agreed to call the HIV virus. Now it is called HIV‑1, as was highlighted in another similar pathogen, called HIV‑2.

Soon their viruses found and Americans. However, the arrogant cancer Institute re-opened French LAV, but the group Jay levy discovered a brand new type of retrovirus (ARV) that damage the human immune system.

In 1983, there were already 1,500 people with AIDS. But scientists have given favorable predictions, believing that now that they know the enemy in person, the cure would be found quickly.

First, you need to understand why the disease is fatal. The answer came almost immediately: sticking to the cage, the owner, HIV penetrates and rebuilds her work. The infected cell soon begins to synthesize new viruses, and she dies. In the end, the person is left cell of the defenders, and any harmless infection becomes deadly.

The disease is divided into three stages. The first hit of the virus in the blood. Trying to escape from the invasion, the body responds with inflammation. The patient may have a fever, to weakness and swollen lymph nodes.

In the second stage, which lasts from 1 year to 12 years, the man looks quite healthy, but the number of lymphocytes, it has been steadily declining. The virus can go into a dormant state ("sleep"), this patient doctors call an infected person.

However, at any time, HIV can be activated, which will lead to the third stage of the infection — AIDS. This stage is characterized by frequent and severe secondary infections or the appearance of a malignant tumor. Such infections have been called opportunistic, and their typical AIDS the set is called AIDS-associated complex.

By the mid - ' 80s, scientists knew about the disease, everything except how to treat it and where did it come from. The US government pretended that this disease does not exist. The priests predicted that AIDS will destroy all sinners (prostitutes, homosexuals and drug addicts), and remember Sodom and Gomorrah and threatened the end of the world.

Among the common people started to panic — police San Francisco without protective masks and gloves refused to approach AIDS, janitors were terrified of garbage bags, which were syringes and Housewives were afraid to go in laundries (suddenly there wash your underwear gay?).

Afraid to get infected, people tried not to touch the handrails on buses and the metro stopped to go into public toilets. Many homosexuals stopped attending Orgy in gay saunas and generally preferred to hide their orientation. Europeans in all seriousness compared the AIDS plague.

The first official report of AIDS was made in 1986. People are urged to remain calm, to use condoms and to sterilize the syringe before the injection. Patients no longer considered outcasts, and scientists involved in AIDS collapsed cash flow for their research. It also introduced a mandatory test donated blood for HIV.

What to Russia, the first case of AIDS was detected rather quickly — in 1987.