Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was founded in 1976 in Zaire, Africa but was not taken seriously until 1985. The media finally began to pay attention to the deadly disease when actor Rock Hudson passed away from complications caused by the AIDS virus in 1985. Though by this time over twelve thousand Americans were either dead or infected with the virus, but nobody seemed to take notice. (2) The mass media ignored AIDS until the death tolls were too high to avoid the sensitive topic. The media, like the government, felt that America was not ready to cover stories of homosexuals and their sexual behavior. Though one must wonder if the crisis would be different today if the people had been better informed about AIDS in the early stages of the epidemic. The origin of AIDS is quite mysterious to the general public. Ignorant rumors about AIDS have materialized in the last decade, but none are close to the truth. The first reported case of a person to die of complications from the obscure AIDS virus was in 1977. The victim was a Denmark doctor, Margrethe Rask, who was practicing medicine in Kinshasa, Zaire for the past five years. Treating patients in Africa, at this time, was much different compared to current standards. Basic supplies were limited, so gloves were barely worn and needles were reused. (3) It is speculated that Rask became ill through one of her patients via blood. This virus, later to be called the Ebola Fever virus, spread throughout the village. Then, suddenly, it vanished, but not before it killed 53% of the people infected. (4) By 1980, this unknown African disease reappeared, it had found a way out of the jungle and into the cities. There are many views on how humans became infected with this disease but the most common are animal bites and bestiality. (5) Doctors of known homosexuals began to notice an increase in a mononucleosis-like syndrome. In many gay patients Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), an uncommon infection to the lungs, was found which is caused by a problem in the immune system. (6) Finally, on June 5, 1981 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made its first official announcement on the mysterious disease. In the bulletin, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, five severe pneumonia cases were described. All the cases were found in Los Angeles hospitals. In all of these five patients there were three common qualities found to prove the importance of the warning: the patients were in their twenties, they were homosexuals, and they all had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. According to the CDC report: "The occurrence of pneumocystosis in this five previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual." (7) Could these five patients have the unknown and deadly AIDS virus? It is quite possible.
Before that weekly report was written, researchers were trying to locate 'Patient Zero' in 1980. (8) 'Patient Zero' was to play a unique role in the upcoming epidemic. He was found by the Centers for Disease Control and his name was Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian airline steward. Many gay men, nationwide, knew of this handsome man in the gay bars and bathhouses, or sex clubs for homosexual men. Dugas was popular among the men because of his charming personality and risky sexual behavior. It was in the summer of 1980 that Gaetan Dugas began to notice a rash and purple spots on his face and body. The doctors realized that Dugas had Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), a form of skin cancer on the internal organs that was later associated with AIDS. (9) Many doctors noticed that Kaposi's Sarcoma was only seen in homosexual men, so it was dubbed the 'gay cancer'. Though this did not stop the sexually active Dugas, he continued to travel to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, and New York visiting numerous bathhouses. (10)
Gaetan Dugas was, later, to figure that he had two hundred and fifty sexual contacts a year. In all, Dugas had had two thousand five hundred sexual partners. In 1982, after major researching by the Centers for Disease Control, a link was found between Dugas and nineteen gay patients dying from a bizarre condition. Out of those nineteen, Dugas had sex with four of the patients. Another four had gone to bed with people who had had sex with Gaetan Dugas, or 'Patient Zero'. (11) Finally, Dugas was told by doctors to stop participating in any sexual activity because he might be transmitting this disease to others. Gaetan Dugas replied to this harsh order, "Somebody gave this thing to me. I'm not going to give up sex." (12) Dugas followed through with his deathly promise and continued to have anonymous sex in the bathhouses. In fact, after having sex with men, Gaetan Dugas would point to his purple lesions caused by the disease and say, "I have the gay cancer. I'm going to die and so are you!" (13) At this same time, 1982, a new name was given to the 'gay cancer.' Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was adopted because it was universal and was sexually neutral. The previous name for the syndrome, Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), was replaced after doctors noticed the virus did not just affect homosexuals. (14) Up until 1984, Gaetan Dugas continued to have unprotected sex. On March 30, 1984, Dugas's aggressive behavior was finally put to an end when he died of a disease called AIDS. (15) Whether Gaetan Dugas brought AIDS to the United States is questionable. Dr. Harold Jaffe, of the Centers for Disease Control, feels the labeling of Dugas as 'Patient Zero' was absurd because it implied that Dugas purposely spread the disease. (16) Anyway, there is no doubt that Gaetan Dugas recklessly spread AIDS throughout the United States. Many questions have arisen during the lethal time period of 1980 until 1985 about the fast spread of the AIDS virus. Most Americans wondered why the gay bathhouses were allowed to continue their business when a majority of the clients were infected with AIDS. It was a known fact that the bathhouses around the United States were there for one reason: anonymous sex among men. The bathhouses were a perfect breeding area for the virus but business continued as usual. A major controversy emerged about the bathhouses and state power over these clubs. With these businesses operating, it showed that the American public could endure the lifestyle of homosexuals. Thus, when suggestions were brought up to shut the bathhouses down it became a huge debate about government intervention. (17) Public Health officials believed that closing the baths would be a good idea to stop the spread of AIDS. Though many gay owners of the bathhouses and gay activists saw the options as a way to contain homosexuality. They were frightened that the shutdowns would not stop there and continue into the gay bars and other gay establishments. (18) Also, the owners of the bathhouses were not going to give up a $100 million industry. (19) This type of response is how AIDS was spread so drastically around North America in the early eighties. The gay business owners of the baths were not interested about a deadly disease running rampant through their clubs just as long as they received money from the clients. During these early years, the owners could have been more concerned about the health of their numerous clients instead the owners were just profiting from them. With this type of ignorant behavior, the Director of the Department of Public Health, Dr. Meryvn Silverman finally put an end to the bathhouse controversy. On October 9, 1984, Silverman compared the bathhouses to "Russian Roulette parlors". He ordered the closure of fourteen baths that "promote and profit from the spread of AIDS". Silverman continued: "These fourteen establishments are not fostering gay liberations. They are fostering disease and death." (20) Finally, a public official had taken action even though it was four years too late. AIDS was beginning to spread like a brush fire because of inconsiderate profiteers, like some bathhouse owners. By 1985, all the bathhouses in America had been put out of business by the government. These owners lost an incredible amount of money but almost ten thousand people had already lost their lives to AIDS. (21)
Shutting down the bathhouses was an obvious answer to slow down the spread of AIDS. However, the federal government should have taken action much sooner in the AIDS crisis. The disease had already been around for nine years when the government shut the bathhouses. With each passing year the death toll grew larger and the government avoided the topic. Former-President Ronald Reagan and his administration seemed to tap-dance around the subject whenever it was mentioned. Like the media, the government was afraid to bring up the AIDS crisis because of the group it mostly affected in the years 1980 until 1985. The conservative Republican party was not ready to make homosexuality a mainstream topic for its voting public. If more heterosexuals had been receiving the virus there is doubt that Reagan would have focused more on AIDS. Finally, in 1982, the Centers for Disease Control asked the administration for funding so to research AIDS. The CDC received no money for the AIDS budget. It has been implied that the federal government only saw AIDS as a homosexual and drug-addicts disease. In their opinion, there was no rush to fund the budget when it dealt with "those" type of people. (22)
As the government continued to ignore the existence of AIDS, many gay activists felt as if the Reagan administration failed to see the disease as a genuine crisis. Dr. Donald Francis, Centers for Disease Control AIDS coordinator for laboratory resources, was flabbergasted at the ill-responsive government in 1983. Francis felt that the money for AIDS research was tremendously important and necessary for further studies. He, also, believed that government intervention on AIDS funding "had been far too little." (23) From 1981 to 1982 the Centers for Disease Control was only able to spend one million dollars on AIDS research. However, the CDC was able to spend over eight million dollars on other diseases that were less threatening than AIDS. Finally, extra funding was given and later became a law though it was greatly opposed by the Reagan administration. The CDC was to be given $2.6 million by Congress for research on the virus. It was a subtle improvement but nothing changed drastically after that point. Congress would continue to figure out a budget necessary for the researchers and, like clockwork, the Reagan administration would resist the increase funding and try to fight it. (24) In the end, the CDC would receive the small amount of money. This inability to fund AIDS demonstrated the decreasing level of domestic concern. (25) It was a perfect example of the inefficient Reagan administration, especially during its first term. Although the subject of AIDS was already a sensitive subject, President Reagan made it practically taboo. In fact, it was not until 1987 that Reagan finally gave his views on AIDS. During the speech, Reagan outlined his program for AIDS. His main concern was for testing but he never stressed AIDS education. (26) Reagan, also, never mentioned anything about civil rights for those who tested positive for the AIDS virus. Though nothing he proposed would have any effect on stopping the spread of AIDS. The Reagan administration did nothing for the AIDS crisis in the early eighties because of the fear of alternate lifestyles, like homosexuals. The health of our nation was put on the line by a man who only saw the political view of AIDS. Randy Shilts strongly believes that Reagan will go down in history as "the man who had let AIDS rage through America". (27) Though this is a fairly harsh statement, I do believe that the government had a lot to do with the spread of the AIDS epidemic. However, I do not just solely blame Reagan and his administration but, also, the people who ran the bathhouses. There are many other institutions that are to be condemned for allowing AIDS to become an epidemic, though I believe these two establishments could have prevented this plague. It is so hard for me to comprehend that AIDS could have been stopped if the government and bathhouses might have worked together. In the years 1980 and 1985, few people saw AIDS as a critical medical crisis. The vast majority, however, saw AIDS as either a budget problem or a homosexual problem. As I researched this topic, I was saddened when I learned that the bathhouses would not even close their doors when they were informed that AIDS was, at first, a gay disease. The owners allowed the disease to spread throughout their businesses because it all came down to greed, similar to our government. How ironic that the owners of these sex clubs were not going to give up their earnings and the government was not about to give up their own money. Though that is the past and we can do nothing about it now but learn from our fatal mistakes. Life will continue but the world will never regain its innocence after a disease called AIDS infected our lives.
(2) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.XXI
(3) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.4
(4) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.5
(5) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.1
(6) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.15
(7) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. pp.4-5
(8) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS.
(9) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.16
(10) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.47
(11) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.130-131
(12) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.138
(13) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19
(14) Antonio, Gene. THE AIDS COVER-UP?. p.3
(15) Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. p.19
(16) Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. p.34
(17) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and the Promise of Medicine." p.596
(18) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and the Promise of Medicine." p.596
(19) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.19
(20) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. pp.489-491
(21) Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT. p.15 (see Table A-1)
(22) Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. p.16
(23) Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and the Promise of Medicine." p.603
(24) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.214
(25) Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. p.131
(26) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595
(27) Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. p.595
Bayer, Ronald. "AIDS and the Gay Community: Between the Specter and the Promise of Medicine." SOCIAL RESEARCH 52.3 (1985): 581606
Centers for Disease Control. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 42.53 October 21, 1994.
Clark, Cheryl. "Definition Changes; New AIDS Cases Double in 1993." SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE March 11, 1994: A-12
Corea, Gena. THE INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC. New York: Harper Collins, 1992
Fox, Daniel. THE POLITICS OF HIV INFECTION. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992
Fumento, Michael. THE MYTH OF HETEROSEXUAL AIDS. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1990
Grmek, Mirko. HISTORY OF AIDS. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990
Shilts, Randy. AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. NEW YORK: Penguin Books, 1988