-
AIDS Virus
Photograph by Eye of Science/Photo Researchers, Inc.
A gallery of falsely colored transmission electron micrograph images captures the presumed order of events when the HIV virus buds from the surface of a T-lymphocyte white blood cell. The virus particles attack T-lymphocytes, stealing their genetic machinery, thereby forcing them to produce more copies of the virus. The new virus particles then erupt from the cell to infect other T-lymphocytes. As these are a vital part of the immune system, the disease severely weakens immunity, making victims susceptible to seemingly harmless infections.
-
Heroin Addict
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski
Vitaly Melnikov, a 29-year-old Russian heroin addict, shoots up in a Moscow apartment. He learned to use clean needles in a Doctors Without Borders risk-reduction program aimed at lowering the numbers of people passing disease through dirty needles.
-
Cambodian Brothel
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski
Prostitutes chat inside a brothel in Cambodia. Sex workers are at high risk of contracting HIV and AIDS—unprotected sex is the primary method of spreading the disease. Cambodia's AIDS epidemic is the worst in Southeast Asia, with about 4 percent of adults infected.
-
Thai AIDS Victim
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski
Thai soldiers learn about AIDS by grim example as they view a victim's body at a hospice run by a Buddhist monastery. Every 24 hours 8,000 people die of AIDS.
-
South African AIDS Clinic
Photograph by Gideon Mendel
Men and women wait in a long line at an AIDS clinic in Lusikisiki, South Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the epicenter of the AIDS crisis. The region is home to some 66 percent of the world's cases and 80 percent of its deaths.
-
AIDS Patient
Photograph by Gideon Mendel
A doctor examines an emaciated AIDS patient in Lusikisiki, South Africa. Ninety-four out of every hundred HIV-infected people live in developing nations, where currently available drug therapies are largely unaffordable.
-
AIDS Research
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski
A scientist in Franceville, Gabon, removes hair and blood samples from a cooperative chimpanzee. Researchers believe that an evolving AIDS virus first spread to humans from wild African chimpanzees, which suffer from a similar virus called SIV.
-
AIDS Patient
Photograph by Karen Kasmauski
Washington, D.C., artist and AIDS patient W. Maxwell Lawton gives himself a weekly testosterone injection and takes a plethora of prescription pills. Though fighting the disease was "a full time job," Lawton lived more than a decade longer than doctors predicted. He died in 2006.
-
AIDS Hospice
Photograph by George Steinmetz
Meals are served with care and compassion at an AIDS hospice run by Milan's Catholic nuns. Needle sharing among IV drug users has infected many European AIDS victims. Worldwide, about 15,000 people contract the disease every day.
Related Features
Health and Human Body
Prehistoric World
Space
Shop National Geographic
2011 Emerging Explorers
ScienceBlogs Picks
-
Jane Goodall
Over the course of 50 years Jane has witnessed the lives of three generations of chimpanzees.
-
Explorer Moment
Ed Viesturs shares an early morning view from Everest.
Advertisement
National Geographic Channel
-
Rocket City Rednecks
Wednesdays at 9P and 9:30P
Meet a group of backwoods Alabama geniuses who tackle problems with hillbilly ingenuity.
-
Mad Scientists
Wednesdays at 10P and 10:30P
Travel across America with host John Bowler as he seeks out the weirdest inventions.
-
National Geographic Investigates
Fridays at 8P, 9P, and 10P et/pt
Get up close with some of the world's most fascinating underground communities, from gangs to cults to organized crime families.
National Geographic Magazine
-
Staffordshire Gold Hoard Pictures
Buried in the English countryside. Anglo-Saxon in origin. Who hid it and why?
-
Iceman Unfrozen Photo Gallery
There was only one way scientists could unlock the mystery of the famous iceman. Take away his ice.
-
Africa's Rift Valley Pictures
As the global population soars toward nine billion by 2045, this corner of Africa shows what's at stake in the decades ahead.
Genographic
-
Jane Goodall
Over the course of 50 years Jane has witnessed the lives of three generations of chimpanzees.
-
Explorer Moment
Ed Viesturs shares an early morning view from Everest.
