ABSTRACT
HISTORIC NOTES The first report in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), dated June 5, 1981, discussed five young men, all active homosexuals who were treated for biopsy confirmed
Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) at three different hospitals in Los Angeles. The authors speculated that there was some aspect of a homosexual’s lifestyle or some disease that was acquired through sexual contact that had a role in these unusual cases [1]. This disease was eventually called the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified as the etiologic agent. In 1983, cases of women who were steady sexual partners of men with AIDS were identified [2].
