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8 Immunology and aids: growing explanations and developing instruments

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Growing Explanations
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8 Immunology and aids: growing explanationsand developing instrumentsIlana Löwyaids can be viewed as immunology’s ‘‘demonstrative disease.’’ This pa-thology can be simultaneously presented as the apotheosis and the apoca-lypse of the immune system because the apocalyptic results of the immunesystem’s failure dramatically display its central importance. Physicianswho in 1981 observed patients su√ering from severe infections, especially‘‘opportunist infections,’’ that is, infections induced by germs which are asa rule harmless in healthy individuals (such as Pneumocystis carinii pneu-monia, buccal candidiasis, toxoplasmosis, or cryptosporidosis), rapidlymade the link between pathological phenomena observed in previouslyhealthy individuals (often young males), and those observed in immu-nosuppressed individuals (persons with severely dysfunctional immunemechanisms) such as children with inborn defects of the immune system,cancer patients su√ering from hematological malignancies or treated withcortisone (a drug which blocks the activity of the immune system), andtransplant patients who have undergone immunosuppressive therapy inorder to prevent graft rejection. The first name of the new disease, grid(gay-related immunodeficiency) stigmatized a sexual minority. The gayconnection rapidly weakened, however, when the same symptoms wereobserved in other groups, leaving acquired immunodeficiency as the maincharacteristic of the mysterious syndrome. Accordingly, the new diseasewas named aids (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome).An infectious immunodeficiencyFrom the very beginning (1981) clinicians had shown that patients su√er-ing from the new syndrome had an unusually low level of T4 (or cd4+)lymphocytes in their blood. (cd4+ lymphocytes are a subset of white bloodcells which play a central role in numerous immune mechanisms; they area part of a larger category of T-lymphocytes.) The first hypotheses on
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

8 Immunology and aids: growing explanationsand developing instrumentsIlana Löwyaids can be viewed as immunology’s ‘‘demonstrative disease.’’ This pa-thology can be simultaneously presented as the apotheosis and the apoca-lypse of the immune system because the apocalyptic results of the immunesystem’s failure dramatically display its central importance. Physicianswho in 1981 observed patients su√ering from severe infections, especially‘‘opportunist infections,’’ that is, infections induced by germs which are asa rule harmless in healthy individuals (such as Pneumocystis carinii pneu-monia, buccal candidiasis, toxoplasmosis, or cryptosporidosis), rapidlymade the link between pathological phenomena observed in previouslyhealthy individuals (often young males), and those observed in immu-nosuppressed individuals (persons with severely dysfunctional immunemechanisms) such as children with inborn defects of the immune system,cancer patients su√ering from hematological malignancies or treated withcortisone (a drug which blocks the activity of the immune system), andtransplant patients who have undergone immunosuppressive therapy inorder to prevent graft rejection. The first name of the new disease, grid(gay-related immunodeficiency) stigmatized a sexual minority. The gayconnection rapidly weakened, however, when the same symptoms wereobserved in other groups, leaving acquired immunodeficiency as the maincharacteristic of the mysterious syndrome. Accordingly, the new diseasewas named aids (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome).An infectious immunodeficiencyFrom the very beginning (1981) clinicians had shown that patients su√er-ing from the new syndrome had an unusually low level of T4 (or cd4+)lymphocytes in their blood. (cd4+ lymphocytes are a subset of white bloodcells which play a central role in numerous immune mechanisms; they area part of a larger category of T-lymphocytes.) The first hypotheses on
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA
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