The Kaposi's Sarcoma Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco: an early response to the AIDS epidemic

Confronting AIDS in the Early 1980s: Biomedicine, Public Health, and the Fourth Estate

Detection of a mysterious and fatal disease among young, previously healthy, homosexual men in spring 1981 warranted a rapid and effective response. An adequate response failed to materialize during the first 5 years of the AIDS pandemic. The failure of biomedicine, public health, and The Press to stop the outbreak was attributed by Randy Shilts to institutional failures. This commentary considers the possibility that organizations, agencies, and authorities failed to safeguard the public's health because they succeeded in carrying out their appropriate tasks of (1) meticulously conducting systematic, scientific, research, (2) cautiously reporting evidence-based observations and alternative interpretations, and (3) carefully exercising rigorous controls over unauthorized and potentially wasteful spending. As practiced in the early 1980s by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and major newspapers and other media outlets, essential features of biomedicine, public health, and The Press inhibited a rapid and effective response.

The Role of Dermatologists in the Early HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Historical Review for the 40th Anniversary of HIV/AIDS

In 1981, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was first recognized in young gay men presenting with opportunistic infections and Kaposi sarcoma. Over the past 40 years, there has been an unparalleled and hugely successful effort on the part of physicians, scientists, public health experts, community activists, and grassroots organizations to study, treat, and prevent HIV/AIDS. Yet the role of dermatologists in the investigation of HIV/AIDS and in the treatment of infected patients has largely been neglected in the historical literature. It is important to revisit dermatologists' historic contributions and problematic biases during this epidemic and honor the legacy of the dermatologists who were instrumental in treating and advocating for patients affected by HIV/AIDS.

Only your calamity: the beginnings of activism by and for people with AIDS

The invention of AIDS activism came soon after the AIDS epidemic emerged in gay communities in the United States in the early 1980s. AIDS activism by and for people with AIDS, distinct from gay activism responding to the threat of AIDS on the behalf of the whole community, started as a way of resisting the phenomenon of social death. Social death, in which people are considered "as good as dead" and denied roles in community life, posed a unique threat to people with AIDS. An organized political response to AIDS began among gay men with AIDS in San Francisco, California, and New York, New York, formalized in a foundational document later called the Denver Principles. The ideas and language of these first people with AIDS influenced later AIDS activism movements. They also help to illustrate the importance of considering an epidemic from the point of view of people with the disease.