--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> ...the era of AIDS began.
>
>
>
<http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/03/health/03AIDS.html>
>
> New York Times - July 3, 1981
>
> Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals
> By Lawrence K. Altman
>
> Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed
> among homosexual
> men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form
> of cancer. Eight
> of the victims died less than 24 months after the
> diagnosis was made.
>
> The cause of the outbreak is unknown, and there is
> as yet no evidence
> of contagion. But the doctors who have made the
> diagnoses, mostly in
> New York City and the San Francisco Bay area, are
> alerting other
> physicians who treat large numbers of homosexual men
> to the problem
> in an effort to help identify more cases and to
> reduce the delay in
> offering chemotherapy treatment.
>
> The sudden appearance of the cancer, called Kaposi's
> Sarcoma, has
> prompted a medical investigation that experts say
> could have as much
> scientific as public health importance because of
> what it may teach
> about determining the causes of more common types of
> cancer.
>
> First Appears in Spots
>
> Doctors have been taught in the past that the cancer
> usually appeared
> first in spots on the legs and that the disease took
> a slow course of
> up to 10 years. But these recent cases have shown
> that it appears in
> one or more violet-colored spots anywhere on the
> body.
>
> The spots generally do not itch or cause other
> symptoms, often can be
> mistaken for bruises, sometimes appear as lumps and
> can turn brown
> after a period of time. The cancer often causes
> swollen lymph glands,
> and then kills by spreading throughout the body.
>
> Doctors investigating the outbreak believe that many
> cases have gone
> undetected because of the rarity of the condition
> and the difficulty
> even dermatologists may have in diagnosing it.
>
> In a letter alerting other physicians to the
> problem, Dr. Alvin E.
> Friedman- Kien of New York University Medical
> Center, one of the
> investigators, described the appearance of the
> outbreak as "rather
> devastating."
>
> Dr. Friedman-Kien said in an interview yesterday
> that he knew of 41
> cases collated in the last five weeks, with the
> cases themselves
> dating to the past 30 months. The Federal Centers
> for Disease Control
> in Atlanta is expected to publish the first
> description of the
> outbreak in its weekly report today, according to a
> spokesman, Dr.
> James Curran. The report notes 26 of the cases - 20
> in New York and
> six in California.
>
> There is no national registry of cancer victims, but
> the nationwide
> incidence of Kaposi's Sarcoma in the past had been
> estimated by the
> Centers for Disease Control to be less than
> six-one-hundredths of a
> case per 100,000 people annually, or about two cases
> in every three
> million people. However, the disease accounts for up
> to 9 percent of
> all cancers in a belt across equatorial Africa,
> where it commonly
> affects children and young adults.
>
> In the United States, it has primarily affected men
> older than 50
> years. But in the recent cases, doctors at nine
> medical centers in
> New York and seven hospitals in California have been
> diagnosing the
> condition among younger men, all of whom said in the
> course of
> standard diagnostic interviews that they were
> homosexual. Although
> the ages of the patients have ranged from 26 to 51
> years, many have
> been under 40, with the mean at 39.
>
> Nine of the 41 cases known to Dr. Friedman-Kien were
> diagnosed in
> California, and several of those victims reported
> that they had been
> in New York in the period preceding the diagnosis.
> Dr. Friedman-Kien
> said that his colleagues were checking on reports of
> two victims
> diagnosed in Copenhagen, one of whom had visited New
> York.
>
> Viral Infections Indicated
>
> No one medical investigator has yet interviewed all
> the victims, Dr.
> Curran said. According to Dr. Friedman-Kien, the
> reporting doctors
> said that most cases had involved homosexual men who
> have had
> multiple and frequent sexual encounters with
> different partners, as
> many as 10 sexual encounters each night up to four
> times a week.
>
> Many of the patients have also been treated for
> viral infections such
> as herpes, cytomegalovirus and hepatitis B as well
> as parasitic
> infections such as amebiasis and giardiasis. Many
> patients also
> reported that they had used drugs such as amyl
> nitrite and LSD to
> heighten sexual pleasure.
>
> Cancer is not believed to be contagious, but
> conditions that might
> precipitate it, such as particular viruses or
> environmental factors,
> might account for an outbreak among a single group.
>
> The medical investigators say some indirect evidence
> actually points
> away from contagion as a cause. None of the patients
> knew each other,
> although the theoretical possibility that some may
> have had sexual
> contact with a person with Kaposi's Sarcoma at some
> point in the past
> could not be excluded, Dr. Friedman-Kien said.
>
> Dr. Curran said there was no apparent danger to
> nonhomosexuals from
> contagion. "The best evidence against contagion," he
> said, "is that
> no cases have been reported to date outside the
> homosexual community
> or in women."
>
> Dr. Friedman-Kien said he had tested nine of the
> victims and found
> severe defects in their immunological systems. The
> patients had
> serious malfunctions of two types of cells called T
> and B cell
> lymphocytes, which have important roles in fighting
> infections and
> cancer.
>
> But Dr. Friedman-Kien emphasized that the
> researchers did not know
> whether the immunological defects were the
> underlying problem or had
> developed secondarily to the infections or drug use.
>
> The research team is testing various hypotheses, one
> of which is a
> possible link between past infection with
> cytomegalovirus and
> development of Kaposi's Sarcoma.
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
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>
Jim Davis Ozark Bioregion, USA
My latest books:
"The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims: A Short Introduciton" http://www.lulu.com/content/114194
"Pure Land Now!" http://www.lulu.com/content/116320