Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Media Coverage of 25th Anniversary of First AIDS Diagnosis
On June 5, 1981, CDC in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published a report on the appearance of a rare strain of pneumonia in five men who had sex with men in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports. One month later, 26 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma, another rare disease that later would become associated with AIDS-related illnesses, were found among MSM in California and New York state, the Times reports. The new disease was labeled "gay men's cancer," but similar infections soon were found in hemophiliacs and people who had received blood transfusions (Brink, Los Angeles Times, 6/5). French and American researchers in 1983 discovered that the infection, now called AIDS, was caused by a virus known as HIV (Maugh/Chong, Los Angeles Times, 6/5). "So now we fast forward 25 years and we see that what people were somewhat skeptical about ... has exploded into one of the most devastating pandemics in the history of civilization," Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said (McAlary, VOA news, 6/2). Twenty five years after the first cases were diagnosed, AIDS-related illnesses now are the No. 1 cause of death worldwide among people ages 15 to 59, the Miami Herald reports (Brackett, Miami Herald, 6/5). According to UNAIDS, about 40 million people worldwide are HIV-positive (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/31). In the U.S., one million people are HIV-positive, and 40,000 new cases are expected to be diagnosed this year, CDC reports (Brink, Los Angeles Times, 6/5). More than 500,000 people in the U.S. have died of AIDS-related causes since 1981 (Maugh/Chong, Los Angeles Times, 6/5). The following is a list of some of the newspaper and media sources that covered "AIDS at 25."
Associated Press"AIDS' Next 25 Years May Be Worse for Africa" (Leonard, AP/Forbes, 6/2).
- "25 Years After AIDS Emerged, Emory Continues Vaccine Fight" (McKenna, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/5).
- "Surviving, Even Thriving, With HIV" (Bor, Baltimore Sun, 6/5).
- "AIDS: Where We Stand, What We've Learned" (Ervolino, Bergen Record, 6/4).
- "Positively Hopeful: 25 Years After First Diagnosis, AIDS Stigma Eases as Fight Goes On" (Fargen, Boston Herald, 6/4).
- "State Gains Ground on Epidemic; AIDS: 25 Years Later" (Reid, Columbia State, 6/4).
- "Twenty-Five Years of AIDS: Unhappy Anniversary" (Economist, 6/3).
- "Program Allows for Treatment of Parents" (Hopper [1], Houston Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Houstonian-Led Group Making Inroads Fighting AIDS in Africa" (Hopper [2], Houston Chronicle, 6/4).
"Commuting a Death Sentence" (Talan, Long Island Newsday, 6/5).
"Grim Reminders of How it Began" (Ricks [1], Long Island Newsday, 6/4).
"'I Have AIDS'" (Marcus, Long Island Newsday, 6/4).
"Tricky Virus Thwarts Scientists' Efforts" (Ricks [2], Long Island Newsday, 6/4).
Los Angeles Times
- "After 25 Years, AIDS Still Prevails" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 6/3).
- "AIDS 25 Years Later" (McCullough, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/5).
- "AIDS Fight Moves to Religious Arena; Evangelicals Clash Over U.S. Funding for Relief Agency" (Burke, Religion News Service/Chicago Tribune, 6/2).
- "San Francisco Reflects on 25 Years of AIDS" (Christie, Reuters Health, 6/2).
- "Battling AIDS: A Man on a Mission: Physician Robert Scott Is Split Between a Busy Practice in Oakland and Another Treating AIDS Patients in Zimbabwe" (Freedberg, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Doctors Fought Fear and Affliction: In Early '80s, San Francisco Volunteers Set Standards for Research of the New Disease and Care of Patients" (Russell [1], San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Disease, Denial Devastating for African Americans: Blacks Are Most Vulnerable" (Fulbright, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/5).
- "Gay Men's Chorus Carries On: A Quarter-Century After the Start of the Epidemic, the Group Has Suffered the Deaths of 257 Members" (May, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "How AIDS Changed Us" (Buchanan [1], San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Interactive Timeline: 1981 to 2006" (San Francisco Chronicle, 6/5).
- "Podcast: Survivor" (Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/5).
- "Prevention Evolves Into Wider Array of Options" (Russell [2], San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Survivors With HIV Challenging Science: Immune Systems May Hold Clues to Virus" (Buchanan [2], San Francisco Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Evolution of an Epidemic" (Brackett, St. Petersburg Times, 6/5).
Washington Times
- "25 Years of AIDS: No Vaccine in Sight" (Howard Price, Washington Times, 6/2).
Broadcast Programs Report on 25th Anniversary of First AIDS Diagnosis
- ABCNews' "Good Morning America": The segment includes comments from Hydeia Broadbent, an HIV/AIDS advocate who discussed living with HIV publicly when she was a young girl, and Fauci ("Good Morning America," ABCNews, 6/5). A related ABCNews story is available online. Video of the segment is available online.
- CBS' "Evening News": The segment includes comments from Jay Levy, professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and director of the Laboratory of Tumor and AIDS Virus Research, and an HIV-positive woman in the U.S. involved with the Well Project, an online support space for HIV-positive women (Kaledin, "Evening News," CBS, 6/2). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- CBS' "Evening News": The segment includes comments from Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations; Michael Gottlieb, an HIV/AIDS researcher who was the lead author of the June 5, 1981 issue of MMWR on the disease that came to be known as AIDS; and Mervyn Silverman, former president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (Mitchell, "Evening News," CBS, 6/4). A related CBS story is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer. In addition, video of a CBS profile of Lagena Lookabill Greene, an HIV-positive U.S. resident, is available online in RealPlayer.
- NPR's "Morning Edition": The segment includes comments from Fauci; Donald Francis, former president of VaxGen; Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV and director of the Maryland-based Institute of Human Virology; Margaret Heckler, Reagan administration HHS secretary; Bruce Walker, director of the Division of AIDS at Harvard Medical School; and health professionals and volunteers involved in an HIV vaccine research trial at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (Knox, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/5). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- NPR's "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday": The segment includes comments from Paul De Lay, director of monitoring and evaluation at UNAIDS (Flatow, "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday," NPR, 6/2). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- NPR's "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday": The segment includes comments from Wafaa El-Sadr, chief of infectious disease at Harlem Hospital Center and director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health; Garrett; and Rowena Johnston, director of research at amfAR (Flatow, "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday," NPR, 6/2). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- NPR's "Weekend Edition Saturday": The segment includes comments from Wayne Shandera, co-author of the June 5, 1981 issue of MMWR (Wilson, "Weekend Edition Saturday," NPR, 6/3). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday": The segment includes comments from Beatrice Hahn, a virologist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and Jim Moore, a comparative primatologist at the University of California-San Diego (Knox, "Weekend Edition Sunday," NPR, 6/4). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
- PRI's "The World": The program, a production of BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston, on Friday concluded its series on the use of music worldwide to raise awareness about and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS (Fink, "The World," PRI, 6/2). The complete segment is available online in Windows Media.
In addition, Frank Beadle de Palomo, senior vice president and director of the AED Center on AIDS and Community Health, is scheduled to answer questions in a washingtonpost.com online chat on Monday at 1 p.m. ET. A transcript of the chat will be available online.
NIH on Monday also will webcast a special event: "25 Years of AIDS Research at NIH," which will include comments from Piot, several NIH researchers -- including NIH director Elias Zerhouni and Fauci -- and Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science and health correspondent. NIH also will premiere the documentary "America and AIDS: a 25-Year Perspective" by Staffan Hildebrand of the Face of AIDS Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. A link to the webcast can be found here. NIH also has launched a website dedicated to 25 years of AIDS (NIH release, 6/1). This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
