It is a virus that immobilizes the victim's immune defense mechanisms, allowing such opportunistic infections as Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Carcinii to invade and destroy the patient. By the end of 1985, there were 14,000 reported cases and no known cure or vaccine . A highly significant climate of fear has arisen around this epidemic - significant for the lives of those infected by the virus as well as for the lives of our national and world communities as we struggle to face the ramifications of this disease. Before answering that question, let us look at how the body ordinarily protects itself from disease. The body's defense mechanism involves a complex and impressive system of recognition, communication, and action.
Recognition begins in utero with an inventory of the tissues of the developing human.
This inventory produces a knowledge of physiological self that will allow the baby's defense mechanisms to recognize Non-Self in the shapes of viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc. The actions that the body can take to prevent the entrance of pathogens or to destroy them once their presence has been recognized and communicated are many. Also, we have mechanical barriers, such as the skin and the mucus membranes that function to prevent infection so long as their surfaces of defense are unbroken. Enzymes, such as gastric juice in the stomach, can have a destructive effect on pathogens. Finally, we have a very specific defense mechanism known as resistance or immunity that learns to recognize the presence of specific foreign substances and thereafter continually acts to destroy them.