Timeline of early AIDS cases

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This article is a timeline of early AIDS cases.

An AIDS case is classified as "early" if the death occurred before June 18, 1981, when the AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.

Contents

[edit] 1959

David Carr: A Manchester printer (usually referred to, mistakenly, as a sailor) who died in October 1959 following the failure of his immune system; he succumbed to pneumonia. Doctors, baffled by what he had died from, preserved fifty of his tissue samples for inspection. In 1990, the tissues were found to be HIV-positive. However, in 1992, a second test by AIDS researcher David Ho found that the strain of HIV present in the tissues was similar to those found in the late 1980s rather than an earlier strain (which would have mutated considerably over the course of thirty years). Ho's discovery has cast doubt on David Carr's death being caused by AIDS, and there is much debate over this topic. [1]

Another early case was also probably detected in 1959, in a 48-year-old Haitian[1], who 30 years before had immigrated to the United States and at the time was working as a shipping clerk for a garment manufacturer in Manhattan. He developed similar symptoms to those just described for the British printer, and died the same year, apparently of the same very rare kind of pneumonia. Many years later, Dr. Gordon R. Hennigar, who had performed this man's autopsy, was asked whether he thought his patient had died of AIDS; he replied "You bet" and added "It was so unusual at the time. Lord knows how many cases of AIDS have been autopsied that we didn't even know had AIDS. I think it's such a strong possibility that I've often thought about getting them to send me the tissue samples.[citation needed]

[edit] 1969

Robert R.: The first apparent confirmed case of AIDS in the United States. In late 1968, a 15-year-old African-American male known only as Robert R. (his last name was kept private) was admitted to a hospital in St. Louis following a breakdown of his immune system and aggressive Kaposi's sarcoma. Doctors were baffled, and Robert's condition worsened over the next few months, and he died following a bout with pneumonia in April 1969. In 1987, Dr. Theresa Witte, one of the physicians who cared for Robert, asked a fellow doctor to test some of Robert's tissue samples. All three tests came up positive. While it is almost certain that he caught the disease through sexual intercourse, it is not known whether he caught it through homosexual or heterosexual sex; however, some of his physicians suspected that Robert was gay. He had never been to Africa or out of the midwest meaning Robert was likely infected by a person in America who already had AIDS, but who remains unidentified. [2]

In his 1999 book The River, the controversial AIDS researcher Edward Hooper questioned whether Robert really had died from AIDS. He noted that Robert's grandfather had reportedly suffered from similar symptoms (suggesting a congenital immunodeficiency) and that he may have been exposed to toxins in his childhood. Robert's symptoms, moreover, were (with the exception of his Kaposi's sarcoma) not wholly typical of AIDS patients. Hooper also noted that Robert's sexual history may have been more prosaic than suspected, and reported that one apparent sexual partner of Robert's was still alive decades later. Hooper also notes that the HIV testing carried out may have used a technique (a sensitivity-enhanced form of the Western blot test developed by Biotech) known to generate false positives.

[edit] 1976

Arvid Noe: A Norwegian sailor and lorry driver, who was probably infected in Cameroon some time between 1961 and 1965. After being fired from his job as a sailor in 1972, he became a lorry driver from 1972 until 1975. He picked up many prostitutes during this time, unknowingly giving them AIDS as well. He impregnated his wife in 1967, infecting both his wife and, later, his daughter (who was infected through childbirth). He retired from his job in 1975, being too sick to work, and died in 1976. His tissues tested positive in an epidemiology study in 1988. [3]

[edit] 1977

Noe family: The wife and 9-year-old daughter of Arvid Noe (mentioned above) both died in 1977. Their tissues also tested positive in the same study in 1988.

Grethe Rask: A Danish surgeon who traveled to Zaire in 1972 to aid the sick. She was likely directly exposed to blood from many Congolese patients, one of whom infected her. She returned to Denmark in late 1976, with her colleagues baffled by her symptoms. She died in April 1977. Her tissues were examined and tested positive by her colleagues in 1984.

[edit] 1978

Senhor Jose: A Portuguese man who is the first confirmed case of HIV-2. He was believed to have been exposed to the disease in Guinea-Bissau in 1966. He was treated at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases by Professor Anthony Bryceson until finally succumbing to the disease in 1978.

Also, three cases among gay men in California and six cases among Haitian immigrants to the United States were confirmed.

[edit] 1979

Herbert Heinrich: Bisexual German concert violinist. Tests in 1989 found that he was HIV-positive, and there has been speculation that he was infected by a prostitute who was infected by Noe, but as of 1997, this has not been proven; see Arvid Noe for further information.

Also, four new cases were reported among gay men in California, and five new cases among Haitian immigrants to the United States.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chicago Tribune How Long Has Virus Been Stalking Victims? October 25, 1987 retrieved 15 May 2008

[edit] External links

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