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First Encounters
What does a new and deadly epidemic look like? The first two AIDS patients
admitted to the NIH research hospital arrived six months apart–in
June 1981 and in January 1982–but many more filled beds soon thereafter.
In the early years, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases recalls, it “was like living in
an intensive care unit all day long.” The patients were very sick,
and despite the best efforts of NIH’s dedicated doctors and nurses,
most patients eventually died. There was much to learn about the new disease
and much to learn about the community hard-hit by the first wave of the
epidemic, gay men. NIH physician-scientists, intellectually and emotionally
challenged by this disease that ravaged the immune system, spent long
hours conducting studies to better understand the illness and devise ways
to treat it. Nurses took on new roles, gathering data for the studies
and educating their colleagues nationwide. Everyone agreed that the best
way to protect themselves against the unknown disease was by sharing information
as soon as it became available. The NIH health care team wanted to make
a difference in the lives of their patients and, through their research,
to all AIDS patients worldwide.
The audio samples below require the Real Audio Player. To download this
program, please go to: http://www.real.com/
...I would talk to them [the patients] about
... “What do you want nurses to think about when they take care
of you?” They would say, “The most important thing that
you can do is not to judge me.”
- Dr. Christine Grady
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Sample | Transcript |
It was mind-boggling, looking at how immunodeficient these patients
were…
- Dr. H. Clifford Lane
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…we received a referral to the NIH, in June of 1981, of a patient
D who…turned out to be the first patient seen at NIH with AIDS.
- Dr. Thomas Waldmann Download
Audio Sample | Transcript |
I don’t remember the exact date when the first [NIAID] patient
got admitted, but I do recall there was a snowstorm, and NIH was closed.
- Dr. Jack Whitescarver Download
Audio Sample | Transcript |
…when I moved into my house, a neighbor came up and…said,
“Welcome to the neighborhood”…and asked what I did.
I said, “I'm a nurse. I work at NIH.” “Oh, what kind
of work do you do?” “I work with AIDS research.” “If you do, I am surprised you even tell anybody about it.”
- Barbara Fabian Baird
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Back To Top | Photography
Credits
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Drs. Lee Hall (left) and Anthony
S. Fauci (right) examine participant in an early AIDS study |
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Healthcare worker takes a patient's pulse |
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Lung X-ray of patient shows infection
with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia |
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The purplish lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer
not usually seen in young men, were common among the patients with
the new immune deficiency disease. |
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A 1981 memo from the CDC director requests the
NCI to collaborate with the CDC on studies on Kaposi's sarcoma |
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