An example of an Epidemic disease.
The rapid development of the epidemic of Kaposi sarcoma in New York.
NEJM
To the Editor: “AIDS-RELATED KAPOSI’S SARCOMA IN NEW YORK CITY IN 1977 “
Jan. 28, 1988 Robert J. Biggar , M.D. National Cancer Institute
Philip C.Nasca, M.D. and William S. Burnett, M.D. New York Sate Department of Helth
“ The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is thought to have first appeared in the United States in 1978-1979. Changes in the frequency of Kaposi’s sarcoma among single young men provide a sensitive means of detecting the existence of AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. We reviewed the cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma that occurred between 1973 and 1979 among men 20 to 50 years of age in New York City ………………….
In 1977 , both the frequency and the features of Kaposi’s sarcoma among young NewYork men changed……………………………………………
These data , collected routinely by the state without regard to AIDS, show that single young men un New York were not at high risk for Kaposi’s sarcoma before 1977. In our prospective studies of homosexual men, the first cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma were diagnosed early that the patients with Kaposi’s sarcoma in 1977 had been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus in 1974 or earlier.”
It represents an example of an Epidemic disease , as you can read in the book of WHO : Basic epidemiology – Authors : Bonita R., Beaglehole R, Kjellstrom T.
- Epidemics are defined as the occurrence of cases in excess of what is normally expected in a
community or region…….A very small number of cases of a disease not previously recognized
in an area, but associated in time and place, may be sufficient to constitute an epidemic.
……………..The rapid development of the epidemic of Kaposi sarcoma in New York is : 2 cases
occurred in 1977 and 1978 and by 1982 there were 88 cases (Biggar RJ, Nasca PC, Burnett WS.
AIDS-related kaposi’s sarcoma in New York City in 1977 N. Engl.J.Med 1988; 318:252) -