The XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City from August 3 through 8 has, as its stated goal, to conduct a forum that "promotes scientific excellence and inquiry, encourages individual and collective action and dialogues, and fosters accountability." The conference’s impressive agenda is testimony to how far we have come in dealing with the worldwide problem as well as how much has been forgotten regarding the early causes, and rapid spread, of the illness in America. Specifically, why were the rather obvious dual goals of prevention and education ignored for so long?

By the summer of 1981, an unnamed phenomenon was being widely discussed in medical circles. Three here-to-fore rare illnesses: a pneumonia (Pneumocystis Carinii), a cancer (Kaposi’s Sarcoma) and a fungus (Candida) were atypically being observed in increasing numbers in large American metropolitan centers. A Center for Disease Control (CDC) task force created a new term grouping them as "Opportunistic Infections" meaning conditions that would not normally appear in healthy individuals and which, therefore, needed some "opportunity" to manifest themselves. Sadly, since the problem was so largely based in the homosexual community, it did not ignite concern in government or even among the general public. A conservative wave had come to power in Washington, DC, and it was clear that as long as "normal Americans" were not at risk, there was no reason to prioritize research programs or even education.

In January of 1982, the CDC had documented one hundred eight cases of the "syndrome" and formed an "Opportunistic Infection and Kaposi’s Sarcoma task force." It requested $830,000 from the NIH (National Institute of Health) multi-billion dollar budget – a request that was denied. Of primary concern was whether the illness was bacterial or viral. If the former was true, surely an antibiotic could easily be identified to kill the bacteria. In the case of the latter, the virus would have to be "isolated" so that a vaccine could be made from the antibodies the infected person’s immune system makes to fight the virus. The term "isolated" was coined with the discovery of the electron microscope in the mid-twentieth century that allowed researchers to actually "see" tiny viruses. Once the virus is isolated, it was thought, a vaccine could easily be made – like Jonas Salk had done with Polio. As we all know, the Polio virus still exists. The vaccine does not destroy the virus but rather it changes the host who has been immunized so that the virus becomes ineffective and thus irrelevant.

While scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were racing to identify the virus, the condition was being called "the gay plague." Fortunately, the gay community thought during the winter of 1982, there were increasing hints that the new illness was not confined to homosexuals. On February 25, 1982, The Wall Street Journal featured an article titled "New, Often Fatal, Illness in Homosexuals Turns up in Women, Heterosexual Males." A month later, The Los Angeles Times printed a similar piece to coincide with the CDC’s announcement that the number of cases had nearly tripled in three months to two hundred eighty-five. The CDC had changed its name for the disease from GRID (Gay Related Infectious Disease) to AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), signaling the discovery that the general population’s immune system was somehow being targeted.

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