ΜΙΑ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΗ ΑΣΘΕΝΕΙΑ ΕΚΕΙ ΣΤΙΣ ΑΡΧΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΔΕΚΑΕΤΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ '80 - 1

"A doctor was treating a gay man in his 20s who had pneumonia. Two weeks later, he called to ask for a refill of a rare drug that I handled. This was unusual - nobody ever asked for a refill. Patients usually were cured in one 10-day treatment or they died"
Sandra Ford for Newsweek [1981]

Dr. Curran said there was no apparent danger to non homosexuals from contagion. 'The best evidence against contagion', he said, 'is that no cases have been reported to date outside the homosexual community or in women'"
The New York Times [1981]

"It is frightening because no one knows what's causing it, said a 28-year old law student who went to the St. Mark's Clinic in Greenwich Village last week complaining of swollen glands, thought to be one early symptom of the disease. Every week a new theory comes out about how you're going to spread it."
The New York Times [1982]

"When it began turning up in children and transfusion recipients, that was a turning point in terms of public perception. Up until then it was entirely a gay epidemic, and it was easy for the average person to say 'So what?' Now everyone could relate."
Harold Jaffe of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for Newsweek [1982]

"The sense of urgency is greatest for haemophiliacs. The risk for others [who receive blood products] now appears small, but is unknown."
“persons who may be considered at increased risk of AIDS include those with symptoms and signs suggestive of AIDS; sexual partners of AIDS patients; sexually active homosexual or bisexual men with multiple partners; Haitian entrants to the United States; present or past abusers of IV drugs; patients with haemophilia; and sexual partners of individuals at increased risk for AIDS."
"each group contains many persons who probably have little risk of acquiring AIDS... Very little is known about risk factors for Haitians with AIDS."
James Curran, the head of the CDC [1983]

"In many parts of the world there is anxiety, bafflement, a sense that something has to be done - although no one knows what."
The New York Times [1983]

"The cause of AIDS is unknown, but it seems most likely to be caused by an agent transmitted by intimate sexual contact, through contaminated needles, or, less commonly, by percutaneous inoculation of infectious blood or blood products. No evidence suggests transmission of AIDS by airborne spread. The failure to identify cases among friends relatives, and co-workers of AIDS patients provides further evidence that casual contact offers little or no risk [...] the occurrence in young infants suggests transmission from an affected mother to a susceptible infant before, during, or shortly after birth."
CDC [1983]