The Year In Medicine From A To Z

From teen suicides to flu-shot shortages to the Vioxx recall, 2004 proved to be a very busy year

A

AIDS

When the epidemic first emerged in the West more than 20 years ago, AIDS was circulating primarily among young gay men. Today, a record 39.4 million people, nearly half of them women, are infected with HIV, according to the latest report from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS. The virus moved deeper into Asia and Eastern Europe, and new cases arose in every region of the globe, evidence of the need for more effective programs for treatment and prevention, such as halting the transmission from mother to child. Breast feeding accounts for as much as half of new...

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