HIV’s origin has been traced to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). AIDS continued to be known as the “gay plague” long after heterosexual transmission was established. The designation amplified the stigma of an already marginalized community. In 1981, the phenomenon of young, homosexual men succumbing to opportunistic infections and rare cancers was identified as gay-related immune deficiency (GRID).
For some among us, however, the echoes of a past pandemic are much more jarring, hearkening to the AIDS crisis of the ’80s. Article contentįor a population just returning to life without travel restrictions, it all feels despairingly familiar.
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