Who was the first president to mention AIDS?
And it wasn't until September 1985, four years after the crisis began, that President Ronald Reagan first publicly mentioned AIDS. But by then, AIDS was already a full-blown epidemic. CDC laboratorian, Carol Reed, conducting AIDS research in 1973.
What is the President's Commission on the HIV epidemic?
The President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic was a commission formed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 to investigate the AIDS pandemic. It is also known as the Watkins Commission for James D. Watkins, its chairman when the commission issued its final report in 1988.
How did the US respond to the AIDS epidemic?
In 1986, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued the Surgeon General’s Report on AIDS. In it, he called for a comprehensive program of sex and AIDS education, urged the widespread use of condoms, and dispelled myths that HIV could be spread by mosquitoes. In 1987, CDC launched an unprecedented national campaign, America Responds to AIDS (ARTA).
What did the Surgeon General say about AIDS in 1986?
In 1986, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued the Surgeon General’s Report on AIDS. In it, he called for a comprehensive program of sex and AIDS education, urged the widespread use of condoms, and dispelled myths that HIV could be spread by mosquitoes.
Who was the president of the Commission on the HIV Epidemic?
The President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic was a commission formed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 to investigate the AIDS pandemic. It is also known as the Watkins Commission for James D. Watkins, its chairman when the commission issued its final report in 1988.
What did Reagan say to Watkins?
Years later, Watkins' wife reported that Watkins told Reagan "I'm a sailor and a submariner, and I know nothing about medicine", and that Reagan replied: "You're exactly who we're looking for.". On October 11, Watkins announced plans to move quickly with reorganizing the commission staff.
What percentage of the defense budget did Watkins spend?
Watkins described it as "only seven-tenths of a percent of the defense budget.". William B. Rubenstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who earlier sued the commission anticipating that its membership would bias its findings, found Watkins' work "a pleasant surprise".
What did Lilly say at the commission meeting?
At the commission's first meeting, Lilly and O'Connor, seated side by side, "chatted cordially", the New York Times reported. When the meeting ended, reporters and television cameras surrounded Lilly leaving him, he said, "shell-shocked" and "scared to death".
Who was Frank Lilly?
Frank Lilly, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Lilly had served on the board of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) from 1984 to 1986. He was "one of the first openly gay Presidential appointees".
Who is Penny Pullen?
Penny Pullen, an Illinois legislator and advocate of mandatory premarital HIV testing and later founder of the Illinois Family Institute. Corinna "Cory" SerVaas, editor of the Saturday Evening Post. Dr. William B. Walsh, president of Project HOPE, a medical relief organization. James D. Watkins, a retired admiral.
What did Watkins call the rule?
He called that discrimination "the rule, not the exception.".
How many people died from AIDS in 1984?
Three years into the epidemic, we had already seen 7,239 reported AIDS cases and 5,596 deaths. In that year, Larry Speakes, the acting White House press secretary, held a telling press briefing on December 11, 1984.
How many deaths did Ronald Reagan have?
. of a magnitude that requires presidential leadership to bring together all elements of society to deal with the problem.”. By the end of his presidency in 1989, Reagan had done nothing of substance, and the United States had suffered 89,343 deaths.
Who went public with AIDS?
HIV/AIDS activists, medical professionals, artists and a number of people with AIDS who went public with their diagnoses despite the stigma surrounding the disease eventually spurred a massive response from the U.S. government and the international health community.
When did the AIDS crisis start?
This article is often cited as the official beginning of the AIDS Crisis. July 1981 – An LGBT newspaper in San Francisco, The Bay Area Reporter, writes about “Gay Men’s Pneumonia” and urges gay men experiencing shortness of breath to see a doctor.
What was the increase in AIDS in 1985?
January 16 – The CDC reports that 1985 saw an 89 percent increase in AIDS diagnoses from 1984, and predicts that the number will double in 1986. May 1 – The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses officially gives the name Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, to the virus that causes AIDS.
How many people are infected with HIV in 2019?
Despite significant progress, the global AIDS epidemic is far from over: 1.7 million people around the world were infected with HIV in 2019, bringing the total number of people living with AIDS today to 38 million.
What happened to Grethe Rask?
December 12, 1977 - Grethe Rask, a Danish physician and surgeon who spent years working in the Congo, dies of pneumonia. Over several years, she suffered from a number of opportunistic infections and severe immunodeficiency. Ten years after her death, a blood test finds she was infected with HIV.
How much money did Kramer raise for the Gay Men's Health Crisis?
He raises $6,635 to fund research into the mysterious new illness, the only money raised for the cause in 1981. Kramer soon co-founds the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), a community-based non-profit dedicated to serving the community throughout the emerging crisis.
Where did the Simian virus originate?
Now known as the subtype HIV-1, the virus begins circulating in Léopoldville, now Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo —believed to be the first zoonotic transmission of HIV.
Who discovered the cause of AIDS?
April 23: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announces that Dr. Robert Gallo and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute have found the cause of AIDS , a retrovirus they have labeled HTLV-III. Heckler also announces the development of a diagnostic blood test to identify HTLV-III and expresses hope that a vaccine against AIDS will be produced within two years.
When did the CDC start the AIDS program?
(CDC will start the Labor Responds to AIDS program in 1995. )
What is HAART in HIV?
In response to the call to “hit early, hit hard,” highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) becomes the new standard of HIV care. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report the first substantial decline in AIDS deaths in the United States.
How many people have died from HIV?
WHO estimates that 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and that 14 million have died of AIDS. February 7: The first National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) is launched as a grassroots-education effort to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS prevention, care, and treatment in communities of color.
When is National HIV Testing Day?
On June 27, the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) launches the first National HIV Testing Day. On July 14, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issue the first guidelines to help healthcare providers prevent opportunistic infections in people infected with HIV.
What is the FDA approved drug for AIDS?
On October 26, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves use of zidovudine (AZT) for pediatric AIDS.
When was the first HIV case reported?
The HIV.gov Timeline reflects the history of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic from the first reported cases in 1981 to the present—where advances in HIV prevention, care, and treatment offer hope for a long, healthy life to people who are living with, or at risk for, HIV and AIDS.
What percentage of African Americans die from AIDS?
CDC reports that African Americans account for 49 percent of AIDS-related deaths in the U.S. and issues first national treatment guidelines for the use of antiretroviral therapy in adults and adolescents with HIV.
When did the gay epidemic start?
This timeline covers some of the highlights over the past 40 years at UCSF, in the nation and around the world after a mysterious outbreak affecting gay men was first reported on June 5, 1981.
How much did UCSF raise for the AIDS Walk?
UCSF finishes first place among AIDS Walk San Francisco fundraising teams raising just over $80,000, a feat achieved for the first time since UCSF started participating in the walk in 1987.
What is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation?
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation was founded as a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS with a mission to end the epidemic in the United States.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Americans with Disabilities Act enacted by Congress prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including those infected with HIV/AIDS. Congress passes the Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act, shortly before his death. The act will be reauthorized in 2006 and again in 2009.
Where is the AIDS Memorial Quilt?
Representatives from the National AIDS Memorial, UCSF, elected officials and the AIDS 2020 Local Planning Group hung an AIDS Memorial Quilt from the balcony of San Francisco City Hall, symbolic of the first quilt panels that were installed there in 1987, to kick off the 23rd International AIDS Conference.
Who is the director of the UCSF Gladstone Center for AIDS Research?
UCSF-Gladstone Center for AIDS Research names UCSF’s Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, as director of the NIH-funded UCSF-Gladstone Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), a position that supports HIV and AIDS research across all three campuses and affiliates in San Francisco.
What was the Reagan administration's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
When the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, the Reagan administration's first reaction was chilling: It appeared to treat the epidemic as a joke. In a new documentary short by Scott Calonico called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, ...
How many people died in the AIDS epidemic in 1984?
Here is audio from 1984, when more than 4,200 had died: Larry Speakes: Lester is beginning to circle now. He's moving up front. Go ahead.
What did Ryan White do to help people with HIV?
His successors eventually acted, albeit often very slowly, on the crisis — leading to much more research, programs like the Ryan White CARE Act that connect people to care, and the development of antiretroviral medication that increases the life expectancy of a person living with HIV by decades.
Who was Ronald Reagan's press secretary?
In a new documentary short by Scott Calonico called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, audio of press conferences reveals Ronald Reagan's press secretary, Larry Speakes , and members of the media joking about the HIV/AIDS epidemic — which they called "gay plague" — and laughing about one of the reporters potentially having it.
Can HIV be transmitted through saliva?
For one, they show just how little was known about the disease when the epidemic first broke — people thought it was exclusive to gay people, and thought that it could be transmitted through saliva, even though HIV can only be transmitted through blood, semen, pre-cum, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids, and breast milk.
When did Reagan mention AIDS?
Even then, it was only because a reporter brought it up at a news conference. Not until the spring of 1987 did Reagan give a major speech about AIDS.
How many cases of AIDS were confirmed while Reagan was in office?
She might have pushed harder to jolt the president of the United States out of his passivity. Almost 83,000 cases of AIDS were confirmed while Reagan was in the White House.
Why did Reagan say "maybe the Lord brought down this plague"?
In the spring of 1987, he discussed the AIDS epidemic with the biographer Edmund Morris and said that “maybe the Lord brought down this plague,” because “illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments.”. Privately, Reagan trafficked in homophobic stereotypes, as did those around him.
What did Reagan do to the health system?
The Reagan administration responded with massive budget cuts to public-health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s main backer of biomedical research, was also struggling with a funding squeeze.
Why did the First Lady fight the Reagan administration?
The former first lady fought the most conservative elements of the Reagan administration in an attempt to get her husband to pay more attention to the deadly pandemic. It wasn’t enough.
Why was Truman Capote arrested?
When the author Truman Capote was arrested in Anaheim for disorderly conduct in the early 1980s, Nancy put in a frantic late-night call to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver, and begged him to find a way to get the renowned writer freed.
Why was Lilly on the commission?
An unnamed administration official told The New York Times that Lilly was on the commission “because the first lady said so.”. A draft of the commission’s final report was due in mid-1988, in the waning months of Reagan’s presidency.
Who was the AIDS person in 1985?
Those with AIDS were often stigmatized. In 1985, Ryan White, a teenage hemophiliac living in Indiana, contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. Parents in his community feared he would expose their children to AIDS, resulting in Ryan being barred from attending school.
What happened in the first year of the AIDS epidemic?
The first year of the AIDS epidemic seemed isolated to a few individuals in a few cities, so it received little media attention. When cases were reported in infants and people with hemophilia, widespread panic struck Americans. Those with AIDS were often stigmatized. In 1985, Ryan White, a teenage hemophiliac living in Indiana, contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. Parents in his community feared he would expose their children to AIDS, resulting in Ryan being barred from attending school.
What was the CDC's role in the spread of AIDS?
Even before CDC was designated in 1986 as the lead federal agency to inform and educate Americans about AIDS , the agency worked “with uncommon flexibility” with state and local public health agencies and community-based organizations to reach people most at risk. Science-based guidelines were translated into messages for target groups about how to make healthy choices, and how to prevent the spread of the disease. Other campaigns were designed to fight against stigma and fear by informing people about the nature of the disease, teaching tolerance and compassion for those who were HIV positive.
What is the first test to detect HIV?
By the next year, the U.S Food and Drug Administration licensed the first commercial blood test, ELISA, to detect HIV. Blood banks begin screening the U.S. blood supply. In a photograph on display, a different CDC lab technician is performing the ELISA test. Using a plastic plate with 96 wells, the lab technician adds the patient’s blood ...
Why did the CDC start investigating KS/OI?
From the very beginning, investigators thought the problem was most likely due to an infectious agent that could be transmitted through sexual contact, although some speculated that recreational drugs or other environmental factors could also be causes.
What are the new guidelines for AIDS?
New Guidelines: The “Universal Precautions”. CDC issued guidelines for health workers providing care to AIDS patients and for laboratory technicians performing tests on potentially infectious materials from AIDS patients.
When did the CDC start testing for HIV?
Furthermore, since testing became available in 1985, CDC began providing federal funds to establish an extensive system of alternate testing and counseling sites, leading to the first nationwide HIV- and AIDS-related prevention program. Today, testing —knowing one’s HIV status—is a key strategy in AIDS prevention.
Overview
Organization
President Reagan issued Executive Order 12601 creating the President's Commission on the HIV Epidemic on June 24, 1987. On June 26, he appointed Dr. W. Eugene Mayberry, CEO of the Mayo Clinic, to chair the commission. Jeff Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force objected to the appointment of someone with no experience with the disease, but others praised Mayberry's experience in both medical research and clinical services. Administration offi…
Reports
In February 1988, the commission released an interim report focused on IV drugs that called for a $20-billion, 10-year effort to fight AIDS. Watkins described it as "only seven-tenths of a percent of the defense budget." William B. Rubenstein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who earlier sued the commission anticipating that its membership would bias its findings, found Watkins' work "a pleasant surprise".
See also
• Office of National AIDS Policy
• National Commission on AIDS
• Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS
• President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
Further reading
• Arthur D. Kahn, AIDS, the Winter War: A Testing of America (Temple University Press, 1993)
External links
• The Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic Report, June 24, 1988
Origins and Silent Spread
1980
1981
- May 18 –Lawrence Mass, a gay doctor in New York City, writes an article for The New York Native, an LGBT newspaper, titled “Disease Rumors Largely Unfounded.” Although the headline would soon be proven false, his report that a number of gay men have been admitted to New York City intensive care unites with severely compromised immune systems is the first article to mention …
1982
- May 11 – In an article titled “New Homosexual Disorder Worries Health Officials,” the New York Times first publishes the phrase Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, or GRID, contributing to the widespread misconception that AIDS only affects gay men. September 24– The CDC uses the term “AIDS” for the first time. It defines Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome as “A disease at …
1983
- January 1– Ward 86, the world’s first dedicated outpatient clinic for people with AIDS, opens at San Francisco General Hospital. The clinic develops the San Francisco Model of Care, a holistic approach that focuses not only on medical care but also on making patients comfortable, providing them with resources they need to deal with the many challenges of living with AIDS, an…
1984
- March 1 – A study in the American Journal of Medicineexamines a cluster of 40 patients with KS and other opportunistic illnesses, tracing their sexual contacts. It describes an unidentified flight attendant, “Patient O” (the O standing for “outside Southern California,” where the study was focused), who was known to have hundreds of sexual partners a year. The report states this ma…
1985
- March 2 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration licenses the first blood test for HIV, and blood banks begin screening the country’s blood supply. April 22 – The Normal Heart, an autobiographical play about the early days of the crisis by Larry Kramer, opens off-Broadway. July 25 – Rock Hudson, a legendary actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood whose homosexuality …
1986
- January 16 – The CDC reports that 1985 saw an 89 percent increase in AIDS diagnoses from 1984, and predicts that the number will double in 1986. May 1 – The International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses officially gives the name Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, to the virus that causes AIDS. July 18 – A group of minority community leaders meet with Surgeon Ge…
1987
- February – Cleve Jones creates the first panel of the AIDS Memorial Quiltin honor of his friend Marvin Feldman, who died of an AIDS-related illness the previous October. Jones makes the panel three feet by six feet, the standard size of a grave plot, intending it and subsequent panels to serve as a way of remembering, grieving and celebrating the l...
1988
- May 26 – The Surgeon General releases the nation's first coordinated HIV/AIDS education strategy, mailing out 107 million copies of a pamphlet titled Understanding AIDS in an attempt to reach every household in America, the largest public mailing in history. November 4 –PresidentReagan signs the first comprehensive federal AIDS bill, the Health Omnibus Program…