Many demonstrations took place during the conference week, the most significant being the "United Call to Action", in which activists, scientists, and many others marched together to emphasise the importance of unified action to end AIDS.86
The International AIDS Society (IAS) announced that no further IAS sponsored conference would be held in a country that restricted the entry of HIV infected travellers.87 As a result of the US travel policy, no major international AIDS conference was to be held in the USA after 1990.
In July the CDC reported the possible transmission of HIV to a patient during a dental procedure. The dentist had been diagnosed with AIDS three months before performing the procedure. The CDC investigation did not identify any other risk factors or behaviours that could have put the patient at risk of HIV infection.88 A couple of months later the patient was named as 22-year old Kimberly Bergalis and the dentist was named as David Acer.89
"When she was diagnosed with AIDS we were in disbelief. All we could wonder was whether something went wrong at the dentists. Health officials said no way, it just can't happen. But Kimberly stuck by her guns and kept telling them to look at the dentist. Eventually the CDC supported her conclusion."George Bergalis -90
In the UK, Prime Minister John Major announced that the Government would pay £42 million compensation to haemophiliacs infected with HIV and their dependants.91
By the end of the year, over 307,000 AIDS cases had been officially reported to the WHO, but the actual number was estimated to be closer to a million. It was estimated that 8-10 million people were living with HIV worldwide, of whom about 5 million were men and 3 million were women.92
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