The Meaning of Life (1914) & AIDS (1981-1982)

Grant Barrett vze36g5m at VERIZON.NET
Wed Jan 9 14:24:41 UTC 2002


On 1/8/02 22:53, "Dave Wilton" <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:

> Shilts credits the coining of the acronym to a 27 July 1982 meeting between
> various government agencies (including the CDC), the Red Cross and other
> blood industry representatives, and various gay community groups. (And The
> Band Played On, Penguin, p. 171)
>
> Prior to this, the term most often used was GRID, standing for Gay-Related
> Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Given the outbreak among hemophiliacs and those
> other than gay men, this older term was no longer deemed accurate.

I was typing up an entry to say exactly that. I'll add that acronyms for the
disease are discussed on page 138 of that edition of the book, under the
date entry of April 2, 1982. Other candidates for the acronym that,
according to the entry, had been discussed by that point in history were
ACIDS (Acquired Community Immune Deficiency Syndrome), CAIDS (Community
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), GRIDs as mentioned, but not AIDS.

[The Shilts book is worthy of all praise it has ever received and holds up
very well 15 years after having first been published. Its only shortcoming
is a lack of a bibliography.]



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