The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The AIDS epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States as early as 1960, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in gay men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is primarily via a "drug cocktail" of antiretroviral drugs, and education programs to help people avoid infection.
Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions.
The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. Launched by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003, as of May 2020, PEPFAR has provided about $90 billion in cumulative funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research since its inception, making it the largest global health program focused on a single disease in history until the Covid-19 crisis. PEPFAR is implemented by a combination of U.S. government agencies in over 50 countries and overseen by the Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State. As of September 30, 2019, PEPFAR has saved over 19 million lives, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This is a timeline of AIDS, including AIDS cases before 1980.
Donald Pinkston Francis is an American epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and as an HIV/AIDS researcher. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. He lives in San Francisco, California.
The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome to be described in the medical literature, whether or not the patient is thought to be the first person affected. An index case can achieve the status of a "classic" case study in the literature, as did Phineas Gage, the first known person to exhibit a definitive personality change as a result of a brain injury.
HIV.gov, formerly known as AIDS.gov, is an internet portal for all United States federal domestic HIV and AIDS resources and information. On World AIDS Day, December 1, 2006, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched AIDS.gov. The site contains content and links that guide users to their desired information.
And the Band Played On is a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
The New York Native was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered reporting on AIDS when most others ignored it. The paper subsequently became known for attacking the scientific understanding of HIV as the cause of AIDS and endorsing HIV/AIDS denialism.
Robert Ray Redfield Jr. is an American virologist. He served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 2021.
Although a variety of infectious diseases existed in the Americas in pre-Columbian times, the limited size of the populations and interactions between those populations hampered the transmission of communicable diseases. One notable infectious disease of American origin is syphilis. Aside from that, most of the major infectious diseases known today originated in the Old World. The American era of limited infectious disease ended with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the Columbian exchange of microorganisms, including those that cause human diseases. Eurasian infections and epidemics had major effects on Native American life in the colonial period and nineteenth century, especially.
Selma Kaderman Dritz was an American physician and epidemiologist who worked in San Francisco, California, where she began tracking the first known cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the early 1980s.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a 1987 book by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts. The book chronicles the discovery and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with a special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a specifically gay disease. Shilts's premise is that AIDS was allowed to happen: while the disease is caused by a biological agent, incompetence and apathy toward those initially affected allowed its spread to become much worse.
Mary Guinan, Ph.D., M.D. is the dean at the School of Community Health Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Guinan is known for her work in the initial investigation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The book and subsequent film And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts documented her efforts regarding these issues; she was played by Glenne Headly. Later on, she became the first female State Health Officer appointed to the Nevada government. Guinan also became president of the American Medical Woman's Association, after 40 years of membership.
Kevin Andrew Fenton FFPH is a regional director at Public Health England. He was formerly director of the United States National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The UCSF Alliance Health Project (AHP), formerly the AIDS Health Project, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides mental health and wellness services for the HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ communities in San Francisco. It is part of the University of California, San Francisco Department of Psychiatry. In addition to direct service to individuals, it also undertakes HIV prevention and LGBTQ mental health research and educates mental health and health care providers about best practices.
James W. Curran is professor of epidemiology and dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He is an adjunct Professor of Medicine and Nursing, and Co-Director and Principal Investigator of the Emory Center for AIDS Research. He is immediate past chair of the board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine and served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Schools of Public Health. Additionally, he holds an endowed chair known as the James W. Curran Dean of Public Health. Dr. Curran is considered to be a pioneer, leader, and expert in the field of HIV/AIDS.
Social activism against the spread of HIV/AIDS and in support of effective treatment has taken place in multiple nations across the world over the past several decades. In terms of the complex history of HIV/AIDS in human beings, widespread criticism by regular individuals against public health organizations have escalated into protest movements due to slow treatment responses. Methods of demonstration have included pamphleteer activities, placard waving, public marches, sit-ins, the hanging of political leaders in effigy, and the like.
John N. Nkengasong is a Cameroonian virologist and the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. He has previously worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the COVID-19 pandemic Nkengasong was appointed the WHO Special Envoy for Africa.
