Neglect of AIDS in US

US:

• HIV was prevalent in US for of years prior to the first known case of AIDS

• First recognized in NY and NJ in 1971, made its way to Cali and Georgia by 1979

• 1980:

  • From October 1980 to May 1981 five homosexual men were treated for biopsy tested Pneumocystis carini pneumonia at THREE different hospitals, two had died

  • Reported by MS Gottlieb, MD, HM Schanker, MD, PT Fan, MD, A Saxon, MD, JD Weisman, DO, Div of Clinical Immunology-Allergy; Dept of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine; I Pozalski, MD, Cedars-Mt. Siani Hospital, Los Angeles; Field services Div, Epidemiology Program Office, CDC.

• 1981:

  • By July 1981, 41 cases of aggressive Kaposi Sarcoma (rare form of relatively benign cancer found in the elderly) among homosexual men in New York and California

  • 8 victims died in 24 months or less

  • https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/us/rare-cancer-seen-in-41-homosexuals.html

  • By the end of 1981 121 people had died

• 1983:

  • 3,064 cases of AIDS were diagnosed

  • 1,292 People had died from complications to the disease

  • Government does nothing to acknowledge it

• 1984:

  • 4,251 people had died

  • US Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced that Dr. Robert Gallo of the NCI had isolated AIDS virus -HTLV-III

  • Heckler-"We hope to have a vaccine [against AIDS] ready for testing in about two years.“ … "yet another terrible disease is about to yield to patience, persistence and outright genius

  • Government still does not acknowledge the existence of AIDS

• 1985:

  • 5,636 people had died from AIDS

  • PRESIDENT FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES AIDS

• In total, 13,309 people died from complications to AIDS before it was recognized by the US government system as an issue to be tended too