Is AIDS a disease of gay & bisexual men, not of straight men?
The full form of AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It was first reported in the USA in the year 1987. The virus responsible for the disease was identified in mid-1983 at the Pasteur Institute of Paris. It is now officially designated as the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV).
HIV is present in various body fluids, especially in blood, semen and vaginal and cervical secretions.
It is spread through sexual contact, through injected or transfused blood or from mother to baby (in the womb at birth or during breast-feeding). AIDS may stroke the brain, the eyes, the mouth, the lungs, the digestive system and the skin.
Sexual contact, by far, is the way maximum people get infected. So the best way to protect yourself, whether you are a man or a woman, is to maintain a monogamous relationship with someone who has been tested/infected. Use a condom at all time with anyone whose HIV status you don’t know. Avoid prostitues. The riskiest practices are penetrative sexual acts, including anal and vaginal intercourse and performing oral sex.
It is largely the lifestyle which makes gay or bisexual men most vulnerable to AIDS. Women can be infected with the AIDS virus and develop the disease just as men do. Women who are into drugs or prostitutes, are more vulnerable to AIDS.
Coming to the issue that AIDS is a disease of Gay & Bisexual men and not Heterosexual men, it is believed that any man gay, bisexual or straight who indulges in unsafe oral, anal or vaginal sex can get infected with HIV. Also men and women are affected in roughly same numbers.