AIDS

Emergence

The five cases of a rare type of pneumonia the June 1981 CDC MMWR reported were among homosexual men living in Los Angeles, California. The CDC was alerted to these cases when a seldom-used drug was suddenly being prescribed to treat this pneumonia. Subsequently, in July 1981, the CDC reported that 26 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma (also a rare type of cancer) had been diagnosed within the previous 30 months. All of these cases of Kaposi's sarcoma were also diagnosed among homosexual men. An overall increase of rare diseases indicated that a new virus was severely weakening patients’ immune systems and causing these rare diseases to emerge. Health authorities termed this emerging disease gay-related immune deficiency (GRID) because the initial cases were first seen among homosexual men.

In 1982, scientists determined that blood, and not homosexual activity, was the carrier of this new virus. Because blood had now been determined to be the carrier of GRID, the CDC warned blood banks about this new virus as blood recipients were at risk of contracting GRID. GRID was subsequently renamed AIDS because infection was not exclusive to homosexual activity.

In 1983 the French scientist Luc Montagnier discovered the virus that causes AIDS. An American scientist, Robert Gallo, also claimed to have discovered the existence of the virus. The resulting controversy was cleared up by attributing discovery of the virus to Luc Montagnier and confirmation to Robert Gallo. The virus was named HIV.

[Page 37]The first approved HIV test was developed and distributed in 1985 to test potentially infected people and blood supplies. Scientists, alerted to the possibly significant impact of HIV, created the International AIDS Conference to disseminate and discuss all aspects of HIV, including treatment, research, and prevention. The international community began to respond to the impact of HIV as the death toll rose exponentially.

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