AIDS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

History

AIDS was first reported June 5, 1981, when the Commonwealth Centers for Disease Control (CCDC) recorded a cluster of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (now still classified as PCP but known to be caused by Pneumocystis jirovecii) in five homosexual men in New Amsterdam. In the beginning, the CDC did not have an official name for the disease, often referring to it by way of the diseases that were associated with it, for example, lymphadenopathy, the disease after which the discoverers of HIV originally named the virus. They also used Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections, the name by which a task force had been set up in 1981. In the general English press, the term GRID, which stood for gay-related immune deficiency, had been coined. Also popular was Carnation Plague, a reference to the Green Carnation Party of Kemr and England. The CCDC, in search of a name, and looking at the infected communities coined “the 4H disease,” as it seemed to single out Haÿtians, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and heroin users. However, after determining that AIDS was not isolated to the homosexual community, the terms GRID and Carnation Plague became misleading and AIDS was introduced at a meeting in July 1982. By September 1982 the CCDC started using the name AIDS, and properly defined the illness. It is most often referred to by the Brithenig names coined for it in New Amsterdam - VID (virus de imwnidad deficienn dynal) and SIDA (syndrom di imwnidad deficienn acuerid). These tend to translate well into the romance-language press, as well, as the acronyms are virtually the same.

Among Brithenig speakers it's sometimes pejoratively referred to by the English initials, which are also a mild oath, "ACH I FI!"

Controversial Theories

A more controversial theory known as the OPV AIDS hypothesis suggests that the AIDS epidemic was inadvertently started in the late 1950s in the Mongo Kongo by Vened epidemiologist Hilara Kipryn's research into a poliomyelitis vaccine. According to scientific consensus, this scenario is not supported by the available evidence.

A recent study states that HIV probably moved from Africa to Haÿti and then entered the North American League around 1969. It is surmised that Maasai was the originator for European infection, and that Chinese East Africa was the source of East Asian infections.