There are several reasons why women may be at increased risk for aids.  For one thing, women may not realize that their sexual behavior may put them at higher risk for getting aids.  Here are some of the so-called high-risk sexual activities

Aids can be contracted in a variety of ways.  However, there are two primary ways in which it is transmitted.  One is through sexual contact.  Sexual intercourse with a person who carries the aids virus puts another person at a definite risk for getting the disease.  The other major way is the sharing of IV drug needles or syringes and sexual intercourse with infected IV drug users.

Of all the cases of aids, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, more than 10% occur in women.  Hiv, the human immunodeficiency virus, causes aids.

Healthcare workers have a particular problem.  Casual contact with people who have aids does not transmit the virus.  Blood and blood products from an infected person contain the virus.  Virus particles in even small amounts of blood seem to pose a problem for workers handling that blood.

Aids is a disease that strikes fear in the hearts of people throughout the world.  This fear may be based on ignorance, experience or just plain apprehension.

Aids can be transmitted to the child from an infected mother.  Of course this is not done deliberately.  It is known that aids is transmitted either through the placenta (the afterbirth) or during childbirth itself.

Blood transfusions are a fact of life.  With our modern society, there are several conditions under which blood transfusions become lifesaving.  People who are involved in accidents frequently need transfusions if there has been a large loss of blood. 

In the fall of 1981, the centers for disease control of the United States government began to receive an increasing number of unusual and disturbing medical reports.  A rare type of cancer was occurring frequently in certain groups of people.