History, general overview, and protection of health care workers

This article provides a background so that the intensivist can appreciate the social and cultural context in which the AIDS epidemic developed. The upheaval that AIDS has caused in the gay community is described along with some of the economic effects AIDS has had on that population and on the practice of medicine, both locally and nationally. Also reviewed are changes that have taken place in the handling of patients and biologic secretions in order to protect health care workers from contamination from the causative virus. Finally, this article discusses changes in the AIDS patient population and clinical manifestations of the disease.