Negative AIDS was called AFRAIDS (Acute Fear Regarding AIDS) in the late 1980s - The worried well produced just about all of the symptoms that were once part of an ARC (AIDS Related Complex) diagnosis.

 
Michael E.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1292088

Strategies for counseling the 'worried well' in relation to AIDS: discussion paper. R Bor, L Perry, R Miller, and J Jackson; J R Soc Med. 1989 Apri 

The report below documents HIV-negative people who present AIDS-like symptoms simply because they believe they are infected with "HIV". Is this not evidence of the very real possibility, at least in some cases, that it is the anxiety and depression in people who are not really at risk for developing AIDS that causes them to actually develop AIDS after testing positive? And what does this tell us about its "infectivity"?


 


 

 
http://www.aegis..com/news/ads/1988/ad881426.html

 


"AIDS Spawns New Hypochondriacs"

Associated Press (08/14/88)

Miami psychologist Larry Harmon says a new kind of hypochondriac has been spawned by AIDS: people who are convinced they have the AIDS virus despite medical evidence to the contrary. This problem is known as "AFRAIDS," which stands for acute fear regarding AIDS. Symptoms of anxiety and depression, such as weight loss, fatigue, or reduced resistance to disease, are interpreted by AFRAIDS afflicted people as signs of AIDS. Even monthly blood tests for as long as a year have failed to ease the fear in some of these people, who are so terrified they often avoid sex with their spouses and lose concentration at work. Harmon reports that the problem often is rooted in guilt over an extramarital affair, a visit to a prostitute, or a homosexual experience. 
880814 
AD881426