History of HIV
May 12th, 2009
AIDS, originally referred to as “gay cancer,” or “gay plague,” was first documented in 1981 by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention. Less than a year later, the list of populations susceptible to AIDS grew from just homosexual men, to drug users, transfusion patients, and eventually heterosexuals. Since the disease’s 1981 discovery, it is estimated that AIDS has claimed more than 25 million lives worldwide, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in world history. Unfortunately, the stigma associated with the disease caused initial calls for research to fall on deaf ears. Below is a time line consisting of the history and background of the AIDS epidemic from 1978-1990.