Infectious and Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Implications for Dental Public Health*

Abstract

The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has stimulated renewed attention toward infectious diseases and dental public health. Currently, AIDS is defined as individuals with Kaposi's sarcoma and/or pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and/or other life-threatening opportunistic infections (e.g., specific forms of tuberculosis or meningitis, candidal esophagitis), and associated immunosuppression that cannot be accounted for by another disease process and/or medications. As of January 1986, the AIDS epidemic has afflicted over 16,000 persons in the United States and has taken over 8,000 lives. All present indications point toward a much more extensive epidemic based on the lack of a vaccine and effective forms of treatment, the large number of carriers in the population, and variable modes of transmission.