There are two reasons to investigate
connections between alcohol,
HIV infection, and AIDS:
alcohol may adversely affect
the immune system, and alcohol may influence high-risk sexual behavior.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the agent that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
HIV is transmitted through sexual contact with an infected individual, through exchange of infected blood or blood products,
or to the newborn from an infected mother. HIV-infected persons may harbor the virus for many years with no clinical signs of disease.
Eventually, HIV destroys the body's immune system, mainly by impairing a class of white blood cells whose regulatory activities
are essential for immune protection. As a result, people who have AIDS are prone to lung infections, brain abscesses,
and a variety of other infections caused by microorganisms that usually do not produce disease in healthy people.
Those who have AIDS also are prone to cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer rarely seen in non-HIV-infected populations.
The diagnosis of AIDS depends in part on the presence of one or a number of these infections and cancers.
(1).1 One million people in the United States are estimated to be infected with HIV
(2). At least 40,000 new HIV infections are thought to occur among adults and adolescents, and an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 new HIV infections are thought to occur among newborns each year. Currently, 8 to 10 million people worldwide are estimated to be infected with HIV
(3). Of these, 50 percent are expected to develop AIDS within 10 years, and 90 percent may develop AIDS within 20 years of initial infection
(4).The prognosis for persons with AIDS is grim: AIDS-associated mortality may approach 85 percent within 5 years of diagnosis