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In Their Own Words: NIH Researchers Recall the Early Years of AIDS
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1981

June
On June 5, “Pneumocystis Pneumonia–Los Angeles,” by Dr. Michael Gottlieb and colleagues of University of California at Los Angeles, appeared in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (vol. 30, pp. 250-52), a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication. This was the first article about AIDS in the medical literature.
June
On June 16, the first AIDS patient seen at the NIH was admitted under Dr. Thomas Waldmann’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) Omnibus Metabolism Branch protocol.
July
A Task Force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections was established at the CDC under the direction of Dr. James Curran.
August
The CDC reported 108 cases of the new disease in the United States.
September
On September 15, NCI sponsored a conference in Bethesda, MD, on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections. Fifty leading clinicians attended.
Fall 1981
Simian acquired immune deficiency syndrome (simian AIDS) was identified in macaques in two of NIH’s Regional Primate Centers.
Summer and Fall
Public Health Service (PHS) agency heads discussed the new syndrome at regularly scheduled meetings.

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