35 Years of HIV & AIDS

In 2016 we observe the 35th anniversary of the diagnosis of the first cases of AIDS. Of course, we now know that HIV didn’t suddenly appear in 1981. There were a handful of cases of what we now recognize as AIDS-related illnesses in the decades prior to 1980. But 1981 is when people in the U.S. first recognized symptoms of AIDS, which was attacking mostly gay men.