ABSTRACT

“The cause of the outbreak is unknown,” the New York Times reported in 1981, “and there is as yet no evidence of contagion.” In retrospect, these were portentous words. The article briefly described the sudden and unexplained emergence of Kaposi’s Sarcoma—an unusual form of cancer that arises from the cells that line blood vessels—in some forty-one gay men who mainly lived in New York City and San Francisco. 1 These were the first days of what was soon an international epidemic, the consequences of which were more catastrophic than anyone could have possibly imagined. 2 HIV/AIDS has since claimed, according to the World Health Organization, around 35 million lives around the world. And despite decades of advancements in therapy, some 1.1 million people are still dying each year from complications related to the disease. 3