My mind was really blanked out. Oh well... Deadline's been extended anyway... So...

Well, I think I chose a good topic because there has been a lot of studies on this topic. Not surprisingly though, there were a lot of misconceptions about HIV/AIDS in the past. But with the development of modern technology and the hardwork of scientists, professors, experts and universities, we now understand the disease much better than we did in the past.

I actually did some back up research in the past. Back then, I was very surprised to learn that HIV/AIDS was thought to be a disease that only homosexual men had. (This could be one of the factors which led to discrimination against homosexuality! But that's besides the point.)

The name of the disease back then was even directly associated with gays. It was called GRID, which stands for Gay-related Immune Deficiency. 

The next thing that studies showed was that there was a common group of people who got the disease. The name "the 4H Disease" came about as the 4 groups of people who got the diease were the Haitians, heroin users, hemophiliacs and homosexuals.

However, their studies proved to be partly false. It turned out that it was not only the homosexual community that had the disease. Thus, the term GRID and "the 4H Disease" became obsolete. Instead, a new term for the disease, which is AIDS, Acquired Immune Disease Syndrome or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

Also, I found out that in the past, there was no way to cure the disease, nor to slow it down. But today, there are ways to slow down the effects of AIDS/HIV. Unfortunately, there is still no cure for this disease. There are still ongoing studies to find a cure.

Using the different search facilities, I actually found out that each different facility gave me varying results. But to me, I feel that I liked using the Database and Subject Directories best as they gave very non-opinionated information. 

But while using search engines and META search engines, I got very irritated. It is true that there are some proper results. But some of the results that came up were not giving me information about the disease. Rather, they gave me a lot of links to websites of organizations that have been set up to provide assistance to those with the disease. 

The worst thing about the search engine is that sometimes, I find discussion forums. When I click on these links, I find that there are a lot of opinions of people. They say very harsh and insensitive things that I don't even want to read. What these people say on the forums can affect a person's research. It may also sway feelings. Really don't want to use search engines. Results are very varying.