Psychology 2036A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Slut, Safe Sex, Sarcoma

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2036A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

Part 1: brief history of aids & hiv. Late 1970s: first cases of unusual syndrome, characterized by rare diseases (ex. Kaposi"s sarcoma: involved suppression of immune system. 1981: 50 known cases in us, syndrome is named: acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) 1984: 4900 known cases of aids in us, cdc knew they had an epidemic, question: what is causing epidemic. Part 2: epidemiology of aids: correlates of original 50 cases, gay men, reported using drug (amyl nitrate) to enhance sexual pleasure. Thought that aids is caused by chemical agent not true: many gay men never showed signs of aids despite using drug, multiple sexual partners for gay men (biological agent transmitted between sexual partners) Interviewed gay men to see who they slept with gaetan dugas. After being tracked down and interviewed 2500 sexual partners in past 10 years. 40 of original 50 cases could be directly linked to him. 2 years earlier he had been diagnosed with kaposi"s sarcoma.