This is a picture of two doctors called Dr. Conant and Dr. Volberg discussing Kaposi's Sarcoma circa 1981. Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) was a rare form of relatively benign cancer that tended to occur in older people. But by March 1981 at least eight cases of a more aggressive form of KS had occurred amongst young gay men in New York. At about the same time there was an increase, in both California and New York, in the number of cases of a rare lung infection Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). In April this increase in PCP was noticed at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. A drug technician, Sandra Ford, noticed a high number of requests for the drug pentamine, used in the treatment of PCP. In June, the CDC published a report about the occurrence, without identifiable cause, of PCP in five men in Los Angeles. This report is sometimes referred to as the "beginning" of AIDS, but it might be more accurate to describe it as the beginning of the general awareness of AIDS in the USA. More about the history of HIV and AIDS can be found at http://www.avert.org/historyi.htm

This photo is part of a larger HIV and AIDS picture gallery. For more HIV and AIDS photos visit http://www.avert.org/historyi.htm

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Photo credit: � Marcus Conant