20th Anniversary Gets Wide Coverage in Newspapers
The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report rounds up some of the articles appearing in newspapers across the country marking the 20th anniversary of the first published report on the disease that would come to be known as AIDS. (Newspaper names appear in alphabetical order.)
Albany Times Union
- "Without Cure, Epidemic Grows": Examines, among other issues, the "complacency" surrounding AIDS today (Wood, Albany Times Union, 6/3).
- "Billions Spent on AIDS Fight in New York": Looks at how New York's HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment program, which costs about $2 billion per year, has come to be regarded as a "national model" (Odato, Albany Times Union, 6/3).
- "HIV-Positive State Senator Fights for Those With AIDS": Profiles New York state Sen. Thomas Duane (D), who is HIV-positive, and his plan to introduce legislation that would require counties to provide a "certain level" of housing, health and nutritional services to people with AIDS (Benjamin, Albany Times Union, 6/3).
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- "The New AIDS Crisis": Looks at the state of AIDS funding today and how anti-AIDS drugs have helped breed a sense of "complacency" toward the disease (Bonds Staples, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/3).
Augusta Chronicle
- "The War on AIDS at 20": Chronicles the evolution of AIDS and treatment options for AIDS patients in the United States (Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service/Augusta Chronicle, 6/4).
- "The Success of AIDS Prevention Strategies": Highlights prevention strategies that have proven successful, but notes that some populations remain at "high risk" (Bowman,Scripps Howard News Service/Augusta Chronicle, 6/4).
- "Seniors Not Immune to HIV": Describes the epidemic among America's senior population (Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service/Augusta Chronicle, 6/4).
Baltimore Sun
- "In 3rd Decade, AIDS is Worldwide Scourge": Focuses on how HIV/AIDS has affected Baltimore and sub-Saharan Africa (Bor/Murphy, Baltimore Sun, 6/3).
Boston Globe
- "AIDS: A Threat to Elderly, Too": Describes the increase in HIV cases among seniors in the United States (Grossfeld, Boston Globe, 6/4).
Columbus Dispatch
- "War Against AIDS: Doctors Toil to Improve Patients' Lives, Treatment": Examines doctors' views on anti-AIDS drugs and other medical advances in HIV/AIDS treatment (Crane, Columbus Dispatch, 6/3).
- "Living With HIV Harder in Rural Areas": Looks at the "loneliness" and "isolation" felt by many HIV-positive people living in rural areas (Crane, Columbus Dispatch, 6/3).
Contra Costa Times
- "AIDS' Grim Death Toll: 22 Million in 20 Years": Examines the history of HIV/AIDS and the possibilities for an AIDS vaccine (Haney, AP/Contra Costa Times, 6/3).
- "In AIDS' Infancy, Doctors Could Refuse to Care for Patients": Examines how during the early years of the epidemic, physicians sometimes refused to care for AIDS patients out of fear of infection (Collins, Knight Ridder News/Contra Costa Times, 6/3).
Dallas Morning News
- "AIDS: A Growing Complacency": The first in a two-part series, the article focuses on how anti-AIDS drugs and their advertisements are "undermining" safe-sex campaigns and creating an atmosphere of complacency concerning the disease (Ornstein, Dallas Morning News, 6/3).
- "Minority AIDS Rates Still Rising": The second in the two-part series, the article examines how the AIDS epidemic in Dallas is increasingly affecting minority groups (Jacobson, Dallas Morning News, 6/4).
- "Fourteen Years with AIDS and Counting": Describes the life of Dallas Voice Editor Dennis Vercher, who has survived 14 years with AIDS (Jacobson, Dallas Morning News, 6/4).
Deseret News
- " Hope, Uncertainty Reign in AIDS Fight": Documents the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States and in Utah (Haney/Collins, AP/Deseret News, 6/3).
Los Angeles Times
- "A Legacy of Change": Looks at how AIDS has forever altered the field of medicine (Marsa, Los Angeles Times, 6/4).
- "Hope for Vaccine Rises, but So Do Fears of Spread": Describes recent efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine; reports on fears associated with the decreasing effectiveness of AIDS drugs due to drug-resistant HIV strains (Mestel, Los Angeles Times, 6/4).
- "An AIDS Timeline": Highlights milestones in the AIDS epidemic over the past 20 years, including development of AIDS drugs and the deaths of famous AIDS patients (Los Angeles Times, 6/4).
- "Stigma, Ignorance Persist After Two Decades of AIDS": Pearl Jemison-Smith, a retired nurse and founding board member of the AIDS Services Foundation and AIDS Walk Orange County, reflects on her involvement with the epidemic and discusses what new developments the future may bring (Jemison-Smith, Los Angeles Times, 6/3).
- "Life is Forever Altered as Epidemic Turns 20": Examines the impact of HIV/AIDS over the past 20 years and how the disease turned the era into a "time of fundamental change" in the United States (McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 6/3).
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- "Living Longer, but Facing New Obstacles": Looks at the impact of anti-AIDS drugs on prevention efforts; also examines Wisconsin's HIV/AIDS statistics (Marchione, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/2).
Nashville Tennessean
- "AIDS Infections in Metro, State are Increasing": Depicts the upward trend of AIDS cases among young people in Nashville and throughout Tennessee (Snyder, Nashville Tennessean, 6/2).
New York Times
The New York Times Web site contains a special section devoted to the AIDS epidemic at www.nytimes.com/aids.
- "A New York Vastly Altered by AIDS": Describes how AIDS has affected New York City culture over the past two decades (Steinhauer, New York Times, 6/4).
- "20 Years Ago, the First Clues to the Birth of a Plague": Includes excerpts of early reports on the epidemic appearing in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Lancet and the New York Native, a gay newspaper (New York Times, 6/3).
- "In AIDS War, New Weapons and New Victims": Focuses on anti-AIDS drug treatments and how the lives of HIV-positive individuals have changed as a result of the new medicines (Stolberg, New York Times, 6/3).
Newsday
- "AIDS at 20": Longtime Newsday AIDS reporter Laurie Garrett documents the new advances in AIDS research taking place today, including vaccine efforts and studies on new anti-AIDS drugs. The article also looks at the Bush administration's HIV/AIDS funding proposals. Includes a section on "the life cycle of HIV" (Garrett, Newsday, 6/3).
Philadelphia Inquirer
- "How AIDS Changed America": Explores the effect that AIDS has had on America in the past two decades (Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/3).
- "She Once Eased Death, Now Her Patients Live": Chronicles the story of Philadelphia woman Dr. Marla Gold, who treated a number of AIDS patients in the early 1980s (Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/3).
- "Now Drugs Sustain Her as She Lives with HIV": Jeannie Scott, a drug addict who contracted HIV, later entered a rehabilitation program and now uses AIDS drugs to help fight the virus (Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/3).
- "A Journey From Shame to Forgiveness": Examines the story of Philadelphia couple Philip and Immy Ferrara, chronicling their struggle to deal with their son's homosexuality and death from AIDS (Collins, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/3).
Sacramento Bee
- "AIDS Group Not the Force it Once Was": Chronicles the rise and fall of the Sacramento AIDS Foundation, the area's first AIDS organization, from a staff of 50 with a budget of $3 million to a staff of three (Griffith, Sacramento Bee, 6/3).
- "San Francisco's AIDS Activists Angry at Disease's Evolution": Examines the re-emergence of HIV among the gay community in America, a trend that has angered AIDS activists (Mason, AP/Sacramento Bee, 6/3).
San Francisco Chronicle
- "Disease That Changed Our World": Addresses the effect of AIDS on San Francisco, where the disease killed a generation of gay men in the early 1980s (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "AIDS By the Numbers": Offers statistics on AIDS deaths in San Francisco, the United States and the world, as well as a history of the disease (Miller, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Discovering a Global Killer": Chronicles the stories of early AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Gottlieb, who served as an assistant professor of immunology at the UCLA School of Medicine in 1981 (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Meeting Epidemic Head-On": Profiles Dr. Paul Volberding, who served as chief of cancer care at San Francisco General Hospital in 1981 (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Finding Hope After the Devastation": Explores the struggles of Bay Area AIDS patient Bob Lawrence (Heredia, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Survivor Remembers the Worst": AIDS patient Chuck Bierwirth remembers 20 years of the virus (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "She Lost Far More Than a Brother When He Died of AIDS": Features the story of San Francisco resident Tina Perry, who grappled with her younger brother's homosexuality and death from AIDS (Perry, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "Crisis Has Sapped Artists of Energy": Chronicles the ravages of AIDS on arts communities in the Bay Area during the 1980s (Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
- "The Literature is Changing Along with the Epidemic": Examines the evolution of the literary treatment of AIDS during the past 20 years (Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/3).
San Jose Mercury News
- "A Tiny Virus Changed How We Live and Love": Explores the effect that AIDS has had on the world (Kreiger, San Jose Mercury News, 6/2).
- "A Few Harbor the Virus But Never Seem to Get Sick": Chronicles the story of Walter Park and other patients infected with HIV who, despite having the virus for years, do not contract AIDS-related illnesses (Kreiger, San Jose Mercury News, 6/3).
- "Prominent People": Lists a number of prominent figures who have died from AIDS (San Jose Mercury News, 6/3).
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
- "Patients Hope While Fight Goes On": Addresses the history and future of AIDS, warning of the dangers posed by complacency and ignorance about the disease, which has killed almost 20 million individuals worldwide (McVicar, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 6/3).
USA Today
- "A Ray of Light for Blood Supply": Reports on a new technique that uses ultraviolet light to kill viruses, including HIV, and could help eradicate HIV in the blood supply (Davis, USA Today, 6/4.
Washington Post
- "Gay Blacks' HIV Denial Thwarting Outreach": Addresses young black gay men's attitude about contracting HIV, which some public health officials blame for the high rate of infection among the population in six urban areas (Gray/Goldstein, Washington Post, 6/3).