Medical aspects of HIV infection

INTRODUCTION It is more than ten years since the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first recognized as a new clinical entity and it has been the subject of intense medical and scientific investigations. In these ten years physicians have moved from recognizing a particular constellation of opportunist infections and malignancies as AIDS to an understanding that this constellation is the end product of a progressive and relentless destruction of the human immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV). The tenor of medical intervention has therefore moved from crisis management of illness as it arises to monitoring, early treatment and introduction of prophylactic regimes where possible.