HIV/AIDS: What I know, What I Don't...

I guess I thought I knew a lot about HIV/AIDS... and in some ways, I was right. I know this is a viral infection, and I know it causes the breakdown of a person's immune system. A person infected with HIV/AIDS doesn't die from HIV/AIDS, but from the opportunistic infections that attack the body as a result of the weakened immune system. I know that they believe the virus can be traced back to somewhere in Africa, and that it is a simian disease that jumped species. I know that it is spread through sexual secretions and blood, and that the first population in the U.S. to present this disease was the homosexual male community. I know it was first seen in the U.S. in the early 1980's.
I learned this information from various sources, including the media, school, and my step-father, who is a physician.
I would like to learn more about viruses that jump species. I have read several books about other viruses, such as Ebola and Marburg. These viruses are different from HIV/AIDS because they are transmitted more easily and kill their host very quickly and violently. It would be interesting to see how a virus mutates and evolves in order to survive in a species different from the one it began in.
After watching the video on Wednesday, there were several things that were surprising to me. I was surprised first at the amount of fear I felt while watching the video. Most of the events talked about took place 5 to 3 years before I was born. I can imagine, if the same thing were to happen again, that I would be terrified. Nothing is more frightening than something you don't understand, and it seemed that, for a period, no one understood HIV/AIDS or was able to identify it.
I was also surprised that so many people, especially intravenous drug users and members of the gay community, continued to engage in such risky behavior. Was the news of this new, deadly disease not widespread enough? I cannot imagine being aware of such a disease and who it was primarily affecting, and still going on with my activities as normal.
I hope to learn more about HIV/AIDS and its burn through the human race as we continue in this class. I think it is something we all are aware of, but it still seems so distant and foreign. I, to my knowledge, do not know anyone personally with HIV/AIDS. But we live in such an interconnected world that that shouldn't matter. We are all in this thing together, and I hope for the sake of future generations that we are able to make the situation better.