Infectious and sexually transmitted diseases: implications for dental public health

The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has stimulated renewed attention toward infectious diseases and dental public health. Currently, AIDS is defined as individuals with Kaposi's sarcoma and/or pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and/or other life-threatening opportunistic infections (e.g., specific forms of tuberculosis or meningitis, candidal esophagitis), and associated immunosuppression that cannot be accounted for by another disease process and/or medications. As of January 1986, the AIDS epidemic has afflicted over 16,000 persons in the United States and has taken over 8,000 lives. All present indications point toward a much more extensive epidemic based on the lack of a vaccine and effective forms of treatment, the large number of carriers in the population, and variable modes of transmission.