This is a classic article from 快猫短视频鈥檚 archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
BETWEEN spring 1981 and August 1982, physicians in the US diagnosed 500 Americans with an 鈥渁cquired immunodeficiency syndrome鈥� (AIDS) and consequently notified the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. At least 175 of these people have since died. Of those who had developed AIDS in 1980, 70 per cent are now dead. Two cases were reported in England in 1982 and both died. Six similar instances occurred in Denmark. Two died and two are still in hospital. The outcome of two French cases and one in Spain is not known. All 11 European patients were male homosexuals. Of the vastly greater number of Americans, 95 per cent are men and 85 per cent are either homosexual or bisexual.
The earliest American reports described cases of a fatal pneumonia in male homosexuals caused by a mycobacterium, Pneumocystis carinii (Nature, vol 299, p 103). Then a rare skin malignancy, Kaposi鈥檚 sarcoma (KS), appeared in the same group. Perhaps because it is a cancer and therefore more frightening, reports of KS victims multiplied quickly in the US. None has been reported in the UK, but seven European AIDS patients have had KS.
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Why should the Center for Disease Control link a fatal pneumonia and a rare cancer, and why should both attack primarily male homosexuals?
Anything approaching a clear answer can be given to only the first of these questions. P. carinii pneumonia and KS both reflect that the immune defence system is severely out of order. Prior to the present epidemic, these diseases had occurred occasionally in patients who have had organ transplants whose immune defences had been depressed by drugs. Because the pneumonia and KS were observed in people whose medical treatment allowed the conditions to catch hold, they are called 鈥渙pportunistic鈥�.
As to the immunodeficiency that underlies the epidemic, its common factor is a severe imbalance in the cells that produce antibodies and otherwise combat infectious organisms. These lymphocytes fall into two classes, B cells, which produce antibodies and other defensive agents, and T cells, which supplement and assist B cells. Two classes of T cells, T4 and T8, respectively help and suppress (or kill) B cells. Normally, there are roughly twice as many T4 as T8 cells in the blood and lymph. In AIDS patients, this ratio is reversed. T8 suppressor/killer cells outnumber T4 helper cells.
As if AIDS were not complicated enough already, neurologists are beginning to uncover more complications of the syndrome. At the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association held in Washington at the end of September, two American neurologists listed organic psychosis, dystonia, muscle weakness and seizures as compounding problems of AIDS.
Why homosexuals, and homosexual men at that? The only female AIDS patents have been two prostitutes, not lesbians. In fact, KS has never been reported in women. British psychiatrist Dr Alex Comfort wrote that 鈥渙ne of the ingredients in the dissemination of the disease must be something which homosexuals do that heterosexuals do not鈥� (British Journal of Sexual Medicine, September 1982, p 4). He suggests two: anal intercourse and the use of certain drugs. Promiscuity could be a third factor.
This article was originally published in 快猫短视频 on 16 December 1982
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