From The Saturday Paper, 19 September 2026:
On June 5, 1981, the United States Centers for Disease Control issued a report on five young men diagnosed with severe pneumonia caused by a yeast-like fungus then called Pneumocystis carinii. The cases were noteworthy because this infection only affected people with severely compromised immune systems. These young men were previously healthy and in the prime of life.
Barely a year later, the disease had a name – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS – and it was spreading like wildfire among gay men in the United States. In 1983, the cause was discovered: a virus that came to be called the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which was transmitted through bodily fluids including blood and breastmilk.
Four decades, 42 million deaths and 91.4 million infections later, the United Nations target to end AIDS as a global public health threat is in sight. Thanks to a massive and sustained global effort in testing, treatment and prevention, a pandemic that has indiscriminately killed people of all genders, sexualities, ages, ethnicities and nationalities could soon be over. Read more (paywall).
Bianca Nogrady 