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Unknown Disease Emerges
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. -
First Documentation
The first official documentation of the condition was published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).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. -
Public?
Bobbi Campbell, diagnosed in September 1981, was one of San Francisco's first cases of AIDS. He was the first person with AIDS to go public as a PWA. -
A name for the Disease.
the condition had acquired a number of names - GRID5 (gay-related immune deficiency), ‘gay cancer’, ‘community-acquired immune dysfunction’ and ‘gay compromise syndrome’6.
By June, 355 cases of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and/or serious opportunistic infections in previously healthy young people had been reported to the CDC.7 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. -
FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES
On May 2, 1983, the first of many candlelight marches, led and organized by people with AIDS, took place. The goal of the march was to bring attention to the plight of People With AIDS and to remember those who had died. PWAs who organized the march included Gary Walsh, Mark Feldman, Chuck Morris, and Bobbi Campbell . -
Precautions
In September the CDC published their first set of recommended precautions for health-care workers and allied professionals designed to prevent "AIDS transmission".62 In the UK, people who might be particularly susceptible to AIDS were asked not to donate blood. -
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. -
Dr. James Mason
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. -
What is causing AIDS?
At the CDC researchers had been continuing to investigate the cause of AIDS through a study of the sexual contacts of homosexual men in Los Angeles and New York. They identified a man as the link between a number of different cases and they named him "patient 0". The research appeared to confirm that AIDS was a transmittable disease, and the co-operation of "patient 0" contributed to the study. -
Promiscuous
A Canadian flight attendant who died of AIDS was because of his sexual connection to a number of the first victims of HIV/AIDS. It is assumed that he was responsible for introducing the virus into the general population. -
Drugs?
US government had given five pharmaceutical companies licences to develop a test, and in March the first blood test for identifying antibodies to HIV was made commercially available. 27 The test was produced by Abbott Laboratories, and soon began to be used in a number of blood transfusion centres. On 17th September 1985 President Reagan publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time, when he was asked about AIDS funding at a press conference. -
People are infected
•The US shuts its doors to HIV-infected immigrants and travelers. -
More deaths
US bans discrimination against federal workers with HIV.
US mails 107 million copies of "Understanding AIDS," a booklet by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
Number of known deaths in US during 1988 -- 4,855. -
Sorry....
•Ronald Reagan apologizes for his neglect of the epidemic while he was president (US). -
Global Infection
•Number of people living with HIV: 1.4 million
•Newly infected in 2008: 55000
•Deaths due to AIDS: 25000
•Number of females: 3,640,000
