Fauci recalls the terrifying early days of the AIDS epidemic
Forty years ago this month, five mysterious deaths perplexed the young scientist—and launched his long battle against HIV/AIDS.
The rush hour traffic was tightening up, but Anthony Fauci, making the short commute from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to his home in Northwest Washington, D.C., wasn’t thinking about the flashing brake lights up ahead. Instead, his mind was consumed with strange reports of an unexplained disease among gay men on the other side of the country.
At that moment 40 years ago, no one could have guessed they were witnessing the dawn of a worldwide outbreak that would infect more than 75 million people and kill some 35 million.
The first hint that something ominous was arising came in a little-noticed item in the June 5, 1981 edition of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC)
