AIDS at 30: Americans complacent

[marmar]

McClatchy, via the Detroit Free Press:




WASHINGTON -- On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued a warning shot to the world when it reported the first known cases of what would soon be called AIDS.

In its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC reported that five gay men had been hospitalized in Los Angeles with a rare strain of pneumonia that mainly afflicted people with compromised immune systems. Two of the men already had died.

The occurrence "in these 5 previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual," the now-historic report reads. "The fact that these patients were all homosexuals suggests an association" between the pneumonia they developed and "some aspect of a homosexual lifestyle or disease acquired through sexual contact."

It wasn't until July 1982 that one of the worst global killers of all time would take its formal name as acquired immune deficiency syndrome. But it took longer for the public to understand that gay men weren't the only ones at risk. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20110605/NEWS07/106050494/AIDS-30-Americans-complacent?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

[xchrom]

1. complacent ... or fatigued? nt

[John_Adams]

2. Complacent...? I think it is better defined as "confident."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/new-hiv-infections-drop-_n_870976.html

[customerserviceguy]

3. When famous people stopped dying from this

America became complacent. I seem to remember that Magic Johnson disclosed his HIV-positive status twenty years ago, and he's still alive.

Hopefully, the work done on HIV and AIDS has generated a wealth of scientific knowledge that will enable future researchers to come up with treatments for all kinds of viral diseases.