Jason on the onset of AIDs

From: beerman@sas.upenn.edu (Jason Beerman)
Subject: special report: The Onset of AIDS
To: whseminar@dept.english.upenn.edu
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 19:39:58 -0500 (EST)

	The onset of AIDS in the can be traced back to 1981 when a drug 
technician at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta noticed a surge 
in the requests for the drug used to treat Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia 
(PCP).  It was found that five Los Angeles gay men had contracted PCP 
under unusual circumstances.  Concurrently, Kaposi's Sarcoma began 
occurring in gay men in New York, prompting suspicion over whether or not 
there was a common cause to this rash of unusual illness among gay men 
across the country.  Later in 1981 however, the first cases of PCP began 
occurring in drug addicts who weren't necessarily homosexual.
	This "syndrome" was labeled Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID) 
by some scientists and early research indicated that it was caused by an 
infectious agent, possibly a blood-borne virus.  In 1982, the syndrome 
started garnering more widespread attention as the Wall Street Journal 
reported that GRID affected women as well as heterosexual drug users.  
Furthermore, hemophiliacs and Haitian refugees in Florida were also found 
to be afflicted.  At this point, GRID obviously no longer sufficed as a 
proper name for this syndrome since those afflicted were no longer just 
gay men.  The main symptoms had been isolated: this was an illness which 
arrested the capabilities of the immune system.  Moreover, unlike other 
immune deficiency illnesses, it was clear that this was acquired from 
someone.  Therefore, GRID became Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or 
AIDS.  Later in 1982, the first AIDS case resulting from a blood 
transfusion was confirmed (although, obviously, the hemophiliac 
population had probably already been exposed previously).  Also, the 
first babies with AIDS were born that year.  Fourteen nations had 
reported AIDS cases on their respective soil.
	As AIDS spread, so did the general confusion surrounding the 
disease.  In the U.S., the origination of the virus in individuals varied 
greatly by region.  In Europe, the disease had roots in gay men who had 
visited the U.S. as well as a separate influx from Africa.  The presence 
of AIDS in children made many believe that casual household contact was a 
potential cause and this misinformation led to general paranoia over 
contracting the disease.  For example, in San Francisco, some public 
transportation operators began wearing masks to work.  Late in 1983 
however, the scientific evidence actually proved that babies could 
contract AIDS in the womb or during birth and that blood transfusions 
could cause transmission.  In Denver that year, the first U.S. conference 
on AIDS occurred.  At this point, 33 nations had reported AIDS cases, 
3000 Americans had AIDS, and 1283 Americans had already died of AIDS.
	In 1984, gay bathhouses in San Francisco were closed.  The 
Secretary of Health and Human Services (boldly? ignorantly?) declared 
that the epidemic would be brief and a vaccine and a subsequent cure for 
AIDS would be available by 1990.  The following year, AIDS, perhaps for 
the first time, truly entered the national spotlight when actor Rock 
Hudson died of AIDS.  He was the first public figure to have contracted 
and died from the disease.  Another boost to AIDS's notoriety was the 
widely reported case of Ryan White, a 13 year old hemophiliac who was 
banned from school on account of his having AIDS.  In 1985, the first 
international conference on AIDS was held in Atlanta and AIDS had laid 
its veil on 51 countries.
	In 1986, research culminated in the assertion that the retrovirus 
that caused AIDS should be called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).  
Health organizations pushed AIDS to the top of the agenda: the World 
Health Organization (WHO) introduced its global strategy and the U.S. 
Surgeon General published a major report on AIDS.  At this point, AZT was 
being explored as a treatment for AIDS, pending FDA approval.
	The onset of AIDS, as illustrated above, witnessed a 
regionalized, limited disease burgeon into a literal plague.  By the late 
1980s and the early 1990s, AIDS had ripped into the lives of everyone in 
some way.  By 1994, AIDS was the leading cause of death for adults aged 
25 to 44 in the United States.