Patient X waited impatiently in the emergency room of the University of California, Los Angeles Hospital in 1981. After Oral candidiasis was discovered crawling throughout his entire mouth, and incessant diarrhea drained his emaciated body of any nutrients, Dr. Michael Gottlieb administered a blood test revealing a depletion of CD4+ T-lymphocyte cells, helper white blood cells imperative to the immune system. Patient X was discharged but returned to the hospital a week later with Pneumocystis jirovecii. He was treated and released by Gottlieb once more, but would soon later die of another opportunistic disease. Four other patients landed in Gottlieb’s care with the same symptoms as Patient X and the presentation of both Pneumocystis jirovecii and Oral candidiasis. All would later die of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a cancer that plagues the soft tissue of the skin with painful dark lesions. Two of the patients had informed Gottlieb of their belonging to the gay community, which prompted him to release a warning of a “gay-related disease” sweeping across Southern California. The name GRID was later coined, an acronym for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. Across the country, New York dermatologist Alvin E. Friedman-Kein began to observe a parallel trend with Kaposi’s Sarcoma and flu-like symptoms. Other doctors in New York City witnessed similar cases and the Center for Disease Control issued an official report of what would later be known as HIV within the same year of Gottlieb’s initial discovery (Quammen, 2015).
History
Human Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as HIV, has been the cause of 39 million worldwide reported deaths since Gottlieb’s Patient X’s diagnosis according to the World Health Organization. Gaëten Dugas, a gay Canadian flight attendant, was suspected to be patient zero of the United States. He traversed the world, meeting many sexual partners along the way. While he was in Canada, he also made himself popular among a number of gay bars. However, research has shown that Dugas was not patient zero of the United States. Dugas’ medical chart was marked as “Patient O”, meaning the first patient displaying viral symptoms outside of Southern California. The “O” became misconstrued as a zero to doctors reading the chart, therefore creating his title as patient zero. He died in 1984, at the young age of 31 (Doucleff, 2016). Alongside Dugas, many other perished around the time of HIV’s early discovery. A doctor working in the Democratic Republic of Congo died of HIV, beginning the localization of the virus’ origins to central Africa (Aids.gov, 2016). The early 1980’s not only brought new challenges to doctors around the world, but also threatened to tear apart the thick fabrics holding the LGBTQ community together.
“A DISEASE'S SPREAD PROVOKES ANXIETY: Mysterious Illness Most Often Afflicts Homosexual Men — Death Rate Now 40%”, read the title of a 1982 New York Times article written by Robin Herman. Herman reported that there had been about “two new cases a day recorded at the disease control center, [that] killed more people than reported cases of Toxic Shock Syndrome.” The fear-inducing article written by Herman and many others had appeared in newspapers around the country, marking an era of national mass hysteria. The Center for Disease Control strongly dissuaded the general public from sharing needles, and bathhouses began to close in 1984. Troy, a nurse at an HIV residence named Our House of Portland, had been tested for HIV after initially finding about the disease. The standard method of screening was a blood test, with the results taking nearly a week to arrive. Troy described it as “one of the scariest moments of [his] life”, as the 7 day waiting period was filled with dread and worry. In the time of its initial discovery, results would often serve as a death sentence. A cure seemed elusive, and people were dying at exponential rates. Troy stated that an infected person “didn’t tell anyone”, for fear of losing jobs, friends, and loved ones. The disease hit areas of the country more drastically than others, specifically in larger urban areas. Certain cities where the infection hit with the most force included Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. Anne Chatterton, another head nurse at Our House, attended school at the Fashion Institute in Manhattan when the virus hit. Many areas around the institute such as Chelsea and both the East and West Villages were notoriously known for their gay populace. The entire city was in peril, and she claimed to see countless ill people “walking around like skeletons” due to emaciation. She lost many of her close friends to the disease, which inspired her to become a nurse caring for those with HIV in the future.