1983-1984
Dr. Beny Primm, NMAC's Board Chair Emeritus and one of the
world's leading experts on HIV/AIDS, is named president of the Urban Resource
Institute, which supports community-based initiatives and social services for
battered women, the developmentally disabled, substance abusers and those
infected with AIDS. Primm is the director of the Addiction Research Treatment
Corporation (ARTC), which he founded in 1969.
Federation of AIDS Related Organizations formed and the
first ever AIDS Candlelight Memorial is held. In San Francisco, the first woman is diagnosed
with AIDS. The Orphan Drug Act
is passed (and administered by the Food and Drug Administration) to encourage
pharmaceutical companies to develop therapies for rare diseases, including AIDS.
The KSOI Task Force holds its first meeting on blood
transfusions and AIDS. Hemophiliacs who used blood concentrate to treat
their condition exposed themselves to as many 5,000 blood donors at any given
time. The FDA released its first blood screening guidelines, which barred
people from high risk groups from donating blood.
The AIDS Resource Center
in New York City
establishes a program to find emergency housing for people with AIDS; this
program later becomes Bailey House.
In May 1983, doctors at the Institute Pasteur, in France,
led by Luc Montagnier
(right with Robert Gallo at the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS), announce
that they have isolated a virus called
LAV, that they believe to be the cause of AIDS.
Though unnoticed in the press
at the time, a sample of the virus is sent to the CDC.
Due to fears around AIDS, funeral homes nationwide refuse to
accept or embalm the bodies of those who died of AIDS. Families and friends are
forced to cremate their loved ones.
GMHC and Lambda Legal Defense Fund in New York file the first AIDS discrimination
lawsuit.
The first bill specifically funding AIDS research and
treatment is passed. Congress, through the Subcommittee on Human Resources and
Intergovernmental Relations and the Subcommittee on Science and Technology,
initiates the first investigation into the Regan Administration's failure to adequately
address the AIDS epidemic and the lack of funding and support.
In September 1983, the CDC released its first guidelines for
health care professionals around the prevention of "AIDS
transmission."
March 30, 1984
Canadian Gaetan Dugas (left) dies of AIDS-related cancer. Dugas
participated in a number of informational interviews with the CDC about his
illness and sexual relationships. Researchers there dubbed him patient
"O", short for "Out in California".
Unfortunately, others interpreted the diminutive to read "Patient
Zero", leading many to believe Dugas had single-handedly brought HIV to
the United States.
Randy Shilt's 1987 book, And the Band Played On, furthered this urban legend by
portraying Dugas as a near sociopath bent on infecting others.
April 23, 1984
Margaret Heckler, US Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary (right), announced that Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer
Institute had isolated the virus - HTLV-III - that was the "probable
cause" of AIDS, a year after a French team had discovered the virus, which
it called LAV.
In her statement, she also announced the pending release of
a commercial test for the virus and, hence, AIDS, and stated that a vaccine would
be available in two years. She ended her speech with "yet another terrible disease
is about to yield to patience, persistence and outright genius."
Patents were filed that same day covering Gallo's work,
even though there was a very real possibility that HTLV-III and LAV were the
same virus.
The AIDS Action Council
is formed by small group of AIDS service organizations from across the United States.
The CDC recommends abstinence and a reduction in
needle-sharing among IDUs to slow the spread of AIDS.
In May, Bobbi Campbell of San
Francisco and Michael Callen of New York City, attended the Fifth National
Lesbian/Gay Health Conference, which included the Second National Forum on AIDS
and the First National American Association of Physicians for Human Rights
(AAPHR) Symposium. Campbell and Callen led members of the Patient Advisory
Committee of the Second National AIDS Forum in creating a list of PWA rights.
These became known as the Denver
Principles and served as the foundation of the National Association of
People with AIDS (NAPWA).
Special Note:
Paul A. Kawata, head of NAN and later
Executive Director of NMAC, is the last surviving member of the original group
who founded NAPWA.
The World Health Organization (WHO) facilitates the first
European AIDS meeting, in Denmark.
There, it was announced that 2,803 AIDS cases were reported in the US alone. By
the end of 1983, that number had risen to 3,064; 1,292 had died.
From 1983-1984, there are 4,737 known deaths from AIDS
in the United States.
Ronald Reagan still had not said the word "AIDS" in public. Philosopher
Michel Foucault also died of the disease as well during this time.