Gay-related immune deficiency

Gay-related immune deficiency (GRID) (sometimes informally called the gay plague or GRIDS, standing for Gay-related immune deficiency syndrome) was the original name for AIDS, a name proposed after public health scientists noticed clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia among gay males in California and New York City. During the early history of AIDS, an ad hoc organization called Gay Men's Health Crisis was founded to combat what was then thought to be a homosexual-only disease perhaps produced by high levels of promiscuity, intravenous drug use, and usage of poppers. Soon after, clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia were also reported among Haitians recently entering the United States and men with haemophilia, among female sexual partners of AIDS patients, among children born to possibly infected mothers, and among blood transfusion recipients with no obvious risk factors. The term AIDS (for acquired immune deficiency syndrome) was proposed in 1982 by Bruce Voeller, among other researchers, concerned with the accuracy of the disease's name. In this new name, scientists were supported by political figures who realized that the term "gay-related" did not accurately describe the demographic that the disease affected.

In April 23, 1984, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced at a press conference that an American scientist, Dr. Robert Gallo, had discovered the probable cause of AIDS: the retrovirus subsequently named human immunodeficiency virus or HIV in 1986. The virus had previously been discovered by researchers at the Pasteur Institute in France, who called it lymphadenopathy-associated virus. It was given the acronym LAV and was subsequently renamed HIV.

After twenty years of research, both Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia are better understood as opportunistic infections occurring towards the end of the AIDS disease process.