January
The CDC met with blood banking organizations in Atlanta to discuss
proposals to screen out individuals at high risk for AIDS from the
blood donor pool. Self-identification through questionnaires or interviews
was proposed. |
January
The CDC reported cases of AIDS in the female sexual partners of males
with AIDS. |
March
NHLBI convened a meeting of scientific experts to formulate research
recommendations for studies on AIDS and blood transfusion. |
March
Epidemiological evidence showed that AIDS primarily affected gay men
in San Francisco and New York City. In New Jersey, AIDS patients were
primarily intravenous drug users and Haitians, and 68 percent of cases
were in African Americans or Latinos. |
March
The CDC published guidelines adopted by the PHS requesting members
of groups having increased risk for AIDS to refrain from donating
blood. |
Spring
At the invitation of the Haitian Ministry of Health, Dr. Richard Krause,
NIAID director, led a small delegation of NIAID and CDC scientists
to Haiti to study the AIDS epidemic there and assist their clinicians. |
Spring
NIAID hosted a major meeting of experts in Bethesda, Maryland, to
discuss possible etiologies of AIDS. Dr. Albert Sabin summarized the
meeting, urging researchers to “cast a wide net.” |
May
Dr. Luc Montagnier and his collaborators at the Pasteur Institute
reported in Science isolating a new retrovirus, LAV, associated
with AIDS; they did not claim LAV caused AIDS. |
June
The CDC reported 1,641 cases of AIDS in the United States with 644
deaths. |
June
The NIH Clinical Center issued precautions for health care workers
caring for AIDS patients. |
July
NIAID awarded contracts to the New York Blood Center and the Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to collect specimens from AIDS patients
to look for the etiologic agent. |
Summer
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued several
statements seeking to calm public fears that AIDS could be contracted
casually. |
August
NIAID began publishing an informal newsletter, the AIDS Memorandum,
through which scientists could share unpublished research findings.
This publication lasted for two years until AIDS articles were given
expedited publication by mainstream journals. |
August
The CDC reported 1,972 cases of AIDS in the United States with 759
deaths. |
September
NIDR issued recommendations to practicing dentists about precautions
they should take in managing their patients with AIDS. |
September
The CDC reported 2,259 cases of AIDS in the United States with 917
deaths. |
September
On September 12-13, the NIH Workshop on the Epidemiology of AIDS was
held at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza in Rockville, Maryland. |
September
NIAID and NCI launched the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and
the San Francisco Men’s Health Study (SFMHS) to develop large,
comprehensive, longitudinal studies of populations that seemed to
be at risk of AIDS. Soon thereafter, NIAID assumed complete responsibility
for the program. |
October
Projet SIDA, a multidisciplinary study based in Kinshasa, Zaire, was
initiated jointly by NIAID, CDC, the Belgian Institute of Tropical
Medicine, and the Zairean Ministry of Health. |
