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Twenty-five years
Jun. 4th, 2006 11:37 amTomorrow, June 5th, 2006, is the 25th anniversary of the first publication about AIDS deaths in the United States. On June 5th, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, an immunologist, wrote up a set of patient histories for the CDC's Morbity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR): "in the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocytis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California." Later, he said: "I thought this might be bigger than Legionnaire’s disease.” (You can see his write-up of those patients here.)
By the July 4th MMWR, clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocytis carinii pneumonia were being reported in San Francisco and New York. The cluster of Kaposi's sarcoma was also reported in the New York Times in July. The article contained this, now infamous, quote: "Dr. Curran said there was no apparent danger to non homosexuals from contagion. 'The best evidence against contagion', he said, 'is that no cases have been reported to date outside the homosexual community or in women.'" (The article is reprinted at the bottom of this page.)
Previous cases exist: HIV was found in the blood samples of a man from the Congo, taken in 1959. It was found in the tissue samples of a 15-year-old male prostitute who died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1969. It was found in the tissue samples of a Norwegian sailor and his wife, who died in 1976. Of a Danish surgeon who died in 1977. But the literature of the AIDS epidemic, the AIDS epidemic as a concept, and the beginning of the CDC's public health response to what was later named AIDS, began with that list of five gay men, all previously healthy, all with no "clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency." (From the editorial note in the MMWR.)
I really, really don't want to cut-tag this list, but I think someone will kill me if I don't, so. ( Twenty-five years - Rest in peace )
Please feel free to add names in the comments.
And the more than twenty-five million people around the world who have died of complications of AIDS since 1981.
By the July 4th MMWR, clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocytis carinii pneumonia were being reported in San Francisco and New York. The cluster of Kaposi's sarcoma was also reported in the New York Times in July. The article contained this, now infamous, quote: "Dr. Curran said there was no apparent danger to non homosexuals from contagion. 'The best evidence against contagion', he said, 'is that no cases have been reported to date outside the homosexual community or in women.'" (The article is reprinted at the bottom of this page.)
Previous cases exist: HIV was found in the blood samples of a man from the Congo, taken in 1959. It was found in the tissue samples of a 15-year-old male prostitute who died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1969. It was found in the tissue samples of a Norwegian sailor and his wife, who died in 1976. Of a Danish surgeon who died in 1977. But the literature of the AIDS epidemic, the AIDS epidemic as a concept, and the beginning of the CDC's public health response to what was later named AIDS, began with that list of five gay men, all previously healthy, all with no "clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency." (From the editorial note in the MMWR.)
I really, really don't want to cut-tag this list, but I think someone will kill me if I don't, so. ( Twenty-five years - Rest in peace )
Please feel free to add names in the comments.
And the more than twenty-five million people around the world who have died of complications of AIDS since 1981.
