How has AIDS affected our Society? Today more Americans are infected with STD's than at any other time in history. The most serious of these diseases is AIDS. Since the first cases were identified in the United States in 1981, AIDS has touched the lives of millions of American families. This deadly disease is unlike any other in modern history. Changes in social behavior can be directly linked to AIDS. Its overall effect on society has been dramatic. It is unknown whether AIDS and HIV existed and killed in the U.S. and North America before the early 1970s. However in the early 1980s, "deaths by opportuni