AIDS — Will the Next 20 Years Be Different?

Abstract

In the fall of 1981, a patient was referred to one of us at a teaching hospital in Boston for the evaluation of hypoxemia and a mildly abnormal chest radiograph. It was perplexing that a previously healthy man, without known risk factors, would have what turned out to be Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. When the case was discussed at a staff conference, one of the fellows pointed out a recent report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The article, “Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles,” was a description of five homosexual men with what soon came to be known as . . .