On June 5, 1981, an obscure public health bulletin published by the
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta first reported that five young
men—“all active homosexuals”—had contracted a very
rare pneumonia, the cause of which was entirely unknown. The report went
on to note that two of the five men had died and that the other three were
very ill. These were the first five reported cases in the United States of
a deadly disease soon to be known around the world as acquired immune
deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The public health and scientific communities
have since learned that cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were
also emerging simultaneously in Africa, Europe, and other parts of North
America, but the 1981 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the
first scientific documentation of HIV, marked the beginning of a global
public health crisis. And it did so in ways that would shape the form and
content of political discourse and dissent for decades to come.Andrea Densham, Principle of Densham Consulting
in Chicago, is a health policy advocate and former health policymaker
([email protected]). She has written on social movements and health
policy as they relate to LGBT health, HIV, and breast cancer.