LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A brief medical note in the U.S. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published 45 years ago would have profound impacts on the world.
It was the first time a rare pneumonia, found in people with suppressed immune systems, was found in five previously healthy homosexual men in Los Angeles. That initial description would herald the beginning of the HIV pandemic that would kills tens of thousands of Americans and over 44 million worldwide.
It was, he said, a curiosity for him. He worked in oncology and had seen this rare pneumonia in his cancer patients.
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“To have this group of individuals out of the blue come with these opportunistic infections was really kind of interesting as to what would cause something like that to happen without having an underlying illness like cancer or something immunocompromised,” he said…