| 释义 |
AIDS|eɪdz|
Also Aids.
[Acronym: see def.]
1. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome: an illness (often if not always fatal) in which opportunistic infections or malignant tumours develop as a result of a severe loss of cellular immunity, which is itself caused by earlier infection with a retrovirus, HIV, transmitted in sexual fluids and blood. Freq. attrib. Cf. acquired immune deficiency syndrome s.v. acquired ppl. a. (a).
1982Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Rep. (U.S. Centers for Dis. Control) 24 Sept. 508 CDC defines a case of AIDS as a disease, at least moderately predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity, occurring in a person with no known cause for diminished resistance to that disease. Ibid. 10 Dec. 653 The infant had no known contact with an AIDS patient. 1983New Scientist 3 Feb. 289/1 In just one year the list of people at risk from AIDS has lengthened from male homosexuals, drug-abusers and Haitians, to include the entire population [of the U.S.A.]. 1983Observer 26 June 10/9 Across the country, AIDS hysteria is being encouraged. 1984McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 1985 68/1 Many AIDS patients experience malaise, fevers, anorexia, and weight loss for weeks, months, or years prior to the documentation of their initial opportunistic infection. 1985Daily Tel. 22 July 15/8 A cancer clinic in the Bahamas has been ordered to close..after two patients..were given serum infected with HTLV-III, the deadly virus which causes Aids. 1987Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 21 June 35/3 One of the mysteries of HIV is why the virus can lie dormant in some people for long periods, possibly for life, while in others Aids develops more quickly.
2. Special Comb. AIDS-related a., related to or associated with AIDS; spec. in AIDS-related complex, a set of symptoms that often precedes the full development of AIDS, including lymphadenopathy, fever, weight loss, and malaise.
1983N.Y. Times 1 May i. 26/5 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis..will look at potential drug treatments in animals for an AIDS-related form of pneumonia, pneumocystis carinii. 1984European Jrnl. Cancer & Clin. Oncol. XX. 169/1 This syndrome has occasionally been described as ‘pre-AIDS’ or ‘AIDS-related complex’. 1986Daily Tel. 3 Feb. 5/5 Of 34 mothers who gave birth to children with Aids at his hospital, only four had any symptoms of the disease or Aids-related complex, a milder form. 1987Economist 28 Feb. 93/2 After a female prostitute..died..from AIDS, the government launched big campaigns aimed at preventing the spread of the virus, so spreading interest in AIDS-related stocks. |