White, Ryan 1971-1990

AIDS VICTIM

A Terrible Diagnosis.

For most sufferers, an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence. Most AIDS patients died within two years of their diagnosis. Some patients who tested positive for HIV were able to live for years without symptoms of active AIDS, but they had to live with the likelihood of an early death as well as disabling medical symptoms. Some people had mild symptoms which physicians called ARC, or AIDS-related complex. People with many symptoms had "full-blown AIDS," which required a host of often painful treatments. Compounding the psychological and medical costs of the illness was social rejection and prejudice. Victims had to fear their neighbors, friends, and even their families because of the dread associated with the disease. The initial victims of the epidemic were homosexual men and intravenous drug users. In the beginning of the epidemic, scientists thought only gay men got AIDS, and many...

[The entire page is 757 words long]

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