In the early 1980s, doctors in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco began seeing young men with Kaposi's Sarcoma, a cancer usually associated with elderly men of Mediterranean ethnicity. Eventually these men died. The majority of cases involved anal sex.
As the realization that men who had anal intercourse were dying of an otherwise rare cancer began to spread throughout the medical communities, the syndrome began to be called by the colloquialism "Gay Cancer". As medical scientists discovered that the syndrome included other manifestations, such as pneumocystis pneumonia, (PCP), a rare form of pneumonia caused by protozoa, its name was changed to "GRID", or Gay Related Immune Deficiency. This had an effect of boosting homophobia and adding stigma to homosexuality in the general public.
Within the medical community, it quickly became apparent that the disease was not specific to gay men (as blood transfusion patients, heroin users, heterosexual women, bisexuals and newborn babies became added to the list of afflicted), and the CDC renamed the syndrome AIDS (acquired immune deficiency Syndrome) in 1982.
A misconception holds that the disease was introduced by a gay flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, referred to as "Patient Zero". However, subsequent research has revealed that there were cases of AIDS much earlier than initially known.
It has also been theorized that a series of inoculations against hepatitis that were performed in the gay community of San Francisco were tainted with HIV. There is a high correlation between recipients of that vaccination and initial cases of AIDS, this as never been proven accurate.
One of the best-known works on the history of HIV is And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts. Shilts contends that Ronald Reagan's administration dragged its feet in dealing with the crisis due to homophobia, thus allowing the disease to spread and hundreds of thousands of people to needlessly die. This resulted in the formation of ACT-UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power by Larry Kramer.
Shilts also details the fact that the Red Cross refused to ban bisexual and gay men from donating blood at the request of the Centers for Disease Control early in the discovery of the epidemic to keep the blood bank industry from suffering shortages. Thus, tens of thousands of hemophiliacs and transfusion recipients were infected and died.
Activists and critics of current AIDS policies allege that another preventable impediment to the attack on the disease was the academic elitism of "celebrity" scientists. Robert Gallo, an American scientist who was one of many to try to attempt to figure out if there was some kind of new virus in the people who were affected with the disease, became embroiled in a legal battle with French scientists trying to do the same thing. Gallo, too, appeared hung up on the possible connection between the virus causing AIDS and HTLV, a retrovirus that he had worked with previously. Critics claim that because some scientists (and biological research companies) wanted glory and fame, this held up progress on research and more people needlessly died. Eventually, after meeting, the French scientists and Gallo agreed to "share" the discovery of HIV.
Publicity campaigns were started in attempts to counter the often vitriolic and homophobic perception of AIDS as a "gay plague" and replace it with actual knowledge that would save lives. In particular this included the Ryan White case, the red ribbon campaigns, the celebrity dinners, the film of And the Band Played On, sex education programs in schools, television advertisements, etc. Announcements by various celebrities that they had contracted AIDS (including basketball star Magic Johnson) were significant in making the general public aware of the dangers of the disease to everyone, as no disease is confined to one sexual orientation.
In 1986 activists associated with Lyndon LaRouche formed the "Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee" (PANIC) to place what became "Proposition 64" on the California state ballot. While proponents argued that the measures would merely return AIDS to the list of communicable diseases under the public health laws, opponents characterized it as an effort to force HIV-positive individuals out of their jobs and into quarantine. After its defeat it was reintroduced two years later, by the "Prevent AIDS Now In California" (also PANIC) committee, and was defeated again.
The CDC reports that in 2003 in the United States, 46 percent of of HIV cases involved male-to-male contact. An additional 53 percent involved male-to-female contact. [1]
As of 2005 HIV cases in the United States are disproportionately high among the African American community, according to the CDC. A recently released report stated that 52 percent of new cases involved African-Americans while according to the 2000 Census they make-up about 12 percent of the general population. President George W. Bush asked Congress for increased spending on HIV education focusing on the African American community during his 2005 State of the Union address:
- African-Americans make up 54 percent of annual new infections, though they are just 13 percent of the population. African Americans account for two-thirds of new AIDS cases among teens, but are only 15 percent of the national teen population.
A recent study by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University reported that half of African-Americans in the United States believe AIDS was man-made, more than one-quarter said they believed AIDS was produced in a government laboratory and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA. The study was published in the February 1, 2005 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
See also
