The HIV–AIDS Pandemic at 25 — The Global Response

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 354; no. 23; pp. 2414 - 2417
• Main Author: Merson, Michael H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 08.06.2006
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - epidemiology; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - history; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - prevention & control; Adolescent; Adult; Anti-Retroviral Agents - history; Anti-Retroviral Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Cause of Death; Communicable Disease Control - history; Communicable Disease Control - methods; Developing countries; Disease control; Disease Outbreaks - history; Disease prevention; Female; General aspects; Global Health; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; HIV; HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - history; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; LDCs; Male; Medical sciences; Medical statistics; Middle Aged; Pandemics; Relief Work - history; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; World; Infection; Medicine; Immunopathology; Viral disease; AIDS; Pandemic; Immune deficiency; Public health
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp068074

The AIDS crisis demanded a unique and truly global response. Instead, AIDS often engendered stigma, discrimination, and denial. Dr. Michael Merson writes that the result was two decades of slow, insufficient, inconsistent, and often inappropriate response. On June 5, 1981, when the Centers for Disease Control reported five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in young homosexual men in Los Angeles, 1 few suspected it heralded a pandemic of AIDS. In 1983, a retrovirus (later named the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV) was isolated from a patient with AIDS. In the 25 years since the first report, more than 65 million persons have been infected with HIV, and more than 25 million have died of AIDS. Worldwide, more than 40 percent of new infections among adults are in young people 15 to 24 years of age. 2 Ninety-five percent . . .