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Beggining of AIDS
At the beginning of the 1980s various reports began to emerge in California and New York of a small number of men who had been diagnosed with rare forms of cancer and/or pneumonia. However, the men were young and had previously been in relatively good health. The only other characteristic that connected them was that they were all gay. -
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The History of HIV and AIDS in America
The history of AIDS in America began in 1981, when the United States became the first country to officially recognise a strange new illness among a small number of gay men. Today, it is generally accepted that the origin of AIDS probably lies in Africa. However, America was the first country to bring AIDS into the public consciousness and the American reaction undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of AIDS as one of the most politicised, feared and controversial diseases in modern medicine -
The First Official Documentation
The first official documentation of the condition was published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Entitled “Pneumocystis Pneumonia – Los Angeles”, the report detailed the cases of five young gay men hospitalised with serious Pneumocystis Pneumonia Carinii (PCP), cytomegalovirus, and disseminated candida infections. -
After the Diagnose…
Almost a month after the CDC’s announcement, the New York Times reported that a total of 41 homosexual men had been diagnosed with Kaposi’s Sarcoma, eight of whom had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.
At the end of 1981, 5 to 6 new cases of the disease were being reported each week. -
New Names
By 1982 the condition had acquired a number of names - GRID (gay-related immune deficiency), ‘gay cancer’, ‘community-acquired immune dysfunction’ and ‘gay compromise syndrome’. -
New people with the disease
By June, 355 cases of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and/or serious opportunistic infections in previously healthy young people had been reported to the CDC. A total of 20 states had reported cases and the disease was no longer solely affecting gay men; there were a small number of cases among heterosexual men and women. Over half of those identified as heterosexual had used intravenous drugs at some point. -
The Last Name Given
It was not until July at a meeting in Washington, D.C., that the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was suggested. The CDC used the term for the first time in September 1982, when it reported that an average of one to two cases of AIDS were being diagnosed in America every day. -
More Mortality
The CDC reported that three heterosexual haemophiliacs had died after developing PCP and other opportunistic infections. There was nothing to suggest that the patients had acquired AIDS through homosexual contact, or intravenous drug use. What was significant was that all of the patients had received a blood transfusion product made by pooling blood from hundreds of donors.
AIDS had become a disease of the “four H club” – homosexuals, heroin addicts, haemophiliacs and Haitians. -
Discrimination
From the outset, AIDS was associated with a high level of stigma and discrimination. This prejudice arose in part because AIDS was linked to groups, such as gay men and intravenous drug users, that were already highly stigmatised, but also because evidence-based information about what was causing AIDS, and how it might be passed on, was in short supply. -
New Foundations
While the government failed to respond to the epidemic, a number of non-governmental organizations were founded in the most affected areas of America, such as The Kaposi’s Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation in San Francisco (later renamed the San Francisco AIDS Foundation) and, in New York, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). In 1982 GMHC distributed 50,000 free copies of its first newsletter about the syndrome to hospitals, doctors, clinics and the Library of Congress. -
Number of Mortality
By the end of 1983 the number of AIDS diagnoses reported in America had risen to 3,064 and of these people 1,292 had died. -
Causes of the Virus
On 22nd April 1984 The New York Times reported the head of the CDC - Dr. James Mason – as saying that he had reason to believe that French researchers had isolated the virus that causes AIDS.24 The researchers had named the virus LAV, for lymphadenopathy-associated virus.
Mason based his opinion on additional findings by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. -
Believing and testing HIV
A press conference in Washington, Margaret Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Reagan, revealed that Dr. Robert Gallo and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute had reason to believe that HTLV-III (LAV as named by the French researchers) was the virus that caused AIDS (HTLV-III was later renamed HIV). Heckler stated that there would soon be a commercial test available to identify the virus and a vaccine could be ready for testing within two years. -
Developing the test
The US government had given five pharmaceutical companies licenses to develop a test, and in March the first blood test for identifying antibodies to HIV was made commercially available. The test was produced by Abbott Laboratories, and soon began to be used in a number of blood transfusion centers. 73 cases of haemophilia-associated AIDS had been reported. It is estimated that in 1986 more than half of all haemophiliacshad had become infected with the virus. -
Mentioning AIDS
On 17th September 1985 President Reagan publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time, when he was asked about AIDS funding at a press conference.
President Reagan refused to advocate safer sex and condom use, choosing instead to press for a ban on HIV positive immigrants entering the country, then later sexual abstinence, as the keys to preventing the epidemic. -
Rock Hudson
On 3rd October 1985, the actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS. He was the first major public figure known to have died from an AIDS-related illness. -
Understanding AIDS
In 1986 the Surgeon General's Report on AIDS was published. The report was the Government's first major statement on what the nation should do to prevent the spread of AIDS. The "unusually explicit" report urged parents and schools to start "frank, open discussions" about AIDS. -
The introduction of antiretroviral treatment
Early results from clinical trials involving AZT (zidovudine) – a drug that was first investigated as a cancer treatment – showed that it might slow the attack of HIV. The AZT clinical trial divided patients into two groups: one received AZT and the other received a placebo. At the end of six months, only one patient in the AZT group had died, while there were 19 deaths among the placebo group. The clinical trial was stopped early, because of dening the patients in the placebo group. -
The New Treatment
In March 1987 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved AZT as the first antiretroviral drug to be used as a treatment for AIDS. -
ACT UP
In 1987 playwright and novelist Larry Kramer co-founded ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). ACT Up’s slogan ‘Silence-Death’ reflected anger at the government’s slow response in dealing with the AIDS crisis.
ACT Up’s first demonstration took place on 24th March on Wall Street in New York. The group demanded access to treatment for AIDS, public education to stop the spread of AIDS, an end to AIDS discrimination and the establishment of a national policy on AIDS. -
Educating Campaign
The group had almost 3,000 members, many of whom were infuriated that little was being done while their friends and relatives were dying.
The first national, coordinated AIDS education campaign was not finally launched until 1988, when 107 million brochures entitled “Understanding AIDS” were mailed to every household across the country. By this point, nearly 83,000 cases of AIDS had been identified in America, and over 45,000 people had died. -
Slow Progress
By 1988 frustration was growing over the length of time it had taken to approve AZT and the FDA’s slow progress in improving access to other experimental AIDS drugs. On 11th October 1988 more than a thousand ACT UP demonstrators descended on the FDA headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, demanding quicker and more efficient drug approval. Eight days later the FDA announced regulations to cut the time it took for drugs to be approved. -
People with AIDS
By August 1989, more than 100,000 people diagnosed with AIDS had been reported to the CDC. The proportion of AIDS diagnoses among women had increased, and smaller cities and rural areas were increasingly affected. -
New drug: ACTG019
In 1989 results from a major drug trial know as ACTG019 were announced. The trial showed that AZT could slow progression to AIDS in HIV positive individuals with no symptoms. These findings were thought to be extremely positive; on August 17th a press conference was held. -
The Price of the New Drug
The initial optimism was short-lived when the price of the drug was revealed. A year’s supply for one person would cost around $7,000, and many Americans did not have adequate health insurance to cover the cost. Burroughs Wellcome, the makers of AZT, were accused of ‘price gouging and profiteering’. In September, the cost of the drug was cut by 20 percent.
