1982-1985: The Faces of AIDS

1982-1985: The Faces of AIDS

Cases of AIDS in 1982 began to be reported by fourteen nations. And, as early as 1982, CDC received its first report of "AIDS in a person with hemophilia (from a blood transfusion), and in infants born to mothers with AIDS." Source: CDC Historical Highlights A contemporary update on this, concerning AIDS and blood transfusions, from the American Red Cross: "Like most medical procedures, blood transfusions have associated risk. In the more than fifteen years since March 1985, when the FDA first licensed a test to detect HIV antibodies in donated blood, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported only 41 cases of AIDS caused by transfusion of blood that tested negative for the AIDS virus. During this time, more than 216 million blood components were transfused in the United States... Scientific studies have proven that volunteer donors are the single greatest safeguard of the blood supply today." Source: Myths About AIDS and the Blood Supply To continue, Dr. Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in France announced the isolation of the LAV retrovirus (lymphadenopathy-associated virus) in 1983, which later was identified as the cause of AIDS. Source: CNN By 1983, 33 countries reported cases of AIDS. And, on the other side of the Atlantic, Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute isolated the HTLV-III (Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus III) retrovirus in 1984. Medical periodicals such as

Leading causes of AIDS related deaths in the USA. Image Source: Wikimedia

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) continued to reference HTLV-III as the "primary etiologic agent of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)" as late as 1985. Source: JAMA However, in 1986, it was determined that HTLV-III and LAV were the same virus, and they were given the new designation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. AIDS awareness was soon brought to the public's consciousness, when popular film star, Rock Hudson, died of AIDS on October 2, 1985, shortly after making public his AIDS on July 25, 1985, thus becoming the first major public figure to announce that he had AIDS. Another entertainer, the pianist Liberace died of AIDS on February 4, 1987. Many other well known personalities from the entertainment industry added their familiar faces to the cumulative weight of the AIDS crisis, when they succumbed to AIDS: (1) Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke) died in 1989 of AIDS related throat cancer, (2) Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates of Hitchcock's Psycho) died in 1992 of pneumonia brought on by AIDS, (3) Robert Reed (Mike Brady of The Brady Bunch) died in 1992 of intestinal cancer and complications of AIDS, and (4) Dack Rambo (Jack Ewing of Dallas) died in 1994 of complications of AIDS. What are the complications of AIDS? Any secondary condition, symptom, or other disorder caused by an AIDS weakened immune system is a complication of AIDS, so that any number of opportunistic infections can take advantage of that weakness. An opportunistic infection (OI) occurs, when the germs normally in our body take advantage of the weakness of the immune system to cause health problems. If you have HIV and any of a list of about 24 designated Center for Disease Control opportunistic infections, then you have AIDS. Some of the more common opportunistic infections in conjunction with HIV are: (1) PCP (Pneumocystis pneumonia), (2) KS (Kaposi's sarcoma), (3) CMV (Cytomegalovirus, an infection usually affecting the eyes), (4) Candidiasis (Thrush: an infection of the mouth, throat, or vagina), (5) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), and (6) Herpes simplex (can cause oral herpes or genital herpes).