ugh sexual contact, contact with infected blood or from mother to baby in breast milk. It then settles into the t-cells of the body and progressively destroys them. In 1985 a major study was done so that scientists could get a better idea of the structure of the virus and the exact effects it would have on infected individuals. The news was not good. Scientists found that the virus was shaped like an iceberg, with a small visible tip and a huge unseen base. This meant that for every person who was in the stages of full-blown AIDS, there were probably thousands of others who were infected with HIV and still entirely healthy. According to Everything Youd Better Know About AIDS and HIV, there were 90,000 cases of AIDS reported in 1988 and over 50,000 more had died from the illness, but public health officials estimated that over a million people might be infected without even knowing it. These numbers proved to be fairly accurate. More than 700,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1988, and 900,000 more Americans are infected with HIV (Kashif, 49, 63-65).As the epidemic started to come more and more into public view, many people had the misconception that only homosexuals and bisexuals could be infected with HIV (Odets, 85). Today people have finally realized that the virus is not prejudice at all. No matter what sexual preference, gender, race, nationality, or social class you are, you are still at risk. When basketball superstar Magic Johnson announced in 1991 that he had gotten the HIV virus, the feeling spread quick that anyone, not just selected groups of people, could be at risk.It was obvious that cure needed to be found for this epidemic that was killing hundreds of thousands of people every year in America alone and millions more worldwide. When AIDS first surfaced in the United States, no medicines were available to fight the immune deficiency caused by the destruction of t-cells and few treatments ex...
