Karen, grown up in a very traditional family in the western United States, maintained high moral（道德的） standards throughout her youth.. In 1984,at the age of 23,she married Bill. They were blessed with two children, a boy and a girl.
By 1991 their love had deepened, and they were happy. Later that year, Bill developed a white spot on his tongue. He visited a doctor.
One day shortly after that, Bill called Karen to sit beside him. He said with tears in his eyes that he loved her and wanted to live forever with her. The doctor suspected that he had been infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
The family was testeD． Bill and Karen’s results were positive. Bill had become infected before he met Karen; then he passed the virus on to Karen. The children’s results were negative. Within three years, Bill was deaD．“I don’t know how to express what it is like to watch the once handsome man you love and intend to live with forever dying slowly. I cried many nights. He died three months short of ten years of our marriage,”says Karen. Though a doctor told Karen that she would soon follow her husband into death, she is still alive. The infection has progressed to the early stages of AIDS.
Karen is but one of about 30 million people now living with HIV/AIDS, a figure larger than the combined populations of AustraliA． Ireland and Paraguay. According to one UN report, Africa has 21 million of these victims. By the turn of the century that number could reach 40 million and the disease will bring on the greatest disaster in human history. Of the world’s sexually active adults aged 15 to 49,1 in 100 has already been infected with HIV. Of these, only 1 in 10 realizes that he or she is infecteD． In some parts of Africa,25 percent of the adults are infecteD．
Since the beginning of the spread of AIDS in 1981,about 11.7 million people have died of it. It is roughly calculated that in 1997 alone, about 2,3 million people died of it. Nevertheless, there are fresh reasons for optimism in the battle against AIDS. During the past few years, there has been a drop in new AIDS cases in wealthy nations. In addition, promising drugs hold out hope of better health and longer life.
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