ABSTRACT

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic was first reported in June 1981 in a brief summary of six cases of a normally rare pulmonary infection, Pneumocystis carinii, in Los Angeles (1). Besides the temporal link, all these cases occurred among young, apparently healthy homosexual men. About the same time, physicians in New York notified the then Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of a similar outbreak. In their experience, the conditions included Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) but also the rare cutaneous malignancy, Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS). As in Los Angeles, the patients were preponderantly homosexual men, but they noted that nonhomosexual intravenous drug users were also affected (2).