I feel like I am uninformed about a lot of the AIDS organizational history, so here is just a little background in honor of this week's important day.
The first defined cases of AIDS were documented on June 5th, 1981, and was reported as 5 young gay men with Pneumocystis Pneumonia Carinii (PCP), this infection is only found on individuals with seriously complicated immune systems, cytomegalovirus, and disseminated candida infections (avert.org). And by the end of 1981, every week 6 new cases were being reported of this unknown, undefinable disease.
The Acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was recognized starting in Fall 1982.
In too many years afterwards (til approximately 1984), no one in the public was sure how the disease was transmitted and thus many stigmas and discrimination came out of the unknowing.
Finally in 1984, the CDC reported that French researches mad possibly located the virus that causes AIDS “We cannot know for sure now that the LAV virus is the agent that causes AIDS, but the pattern it follows in the human body makes us believe it is” (avert.org).
March 1985 was the month in which there was a test ready to test for AIDS in one's system, and later on in 1986 the government through Surgeon General's Reports and the CDC began to encourage safe sex and condom use as opposed to simply banning HIV positive immigrants- education was starting to decrease the discrimination.
The first drug treatment for AIDS was created in AZT, the first antiretroviral drug, and approved by the FDA in 1987.
In 2009, 33.3 million people worldwide were estimated to be living with AIDS, 15.9 of them being children, with 2.6 million people being newly infected each year.
Even though we are very far away from learning all we can about AIDS, the world is finally begun to stabilize this epidemic and the new infection and death toll numbers have steadily declined.
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