05/06/2026
On 5 June 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a brief article in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that changed history forever. 🕯️🔬
Titled 'Pneumocystis Pneumonia—Los Angeles', the report was compiled by Los Angeles immunologist Dr Michael Gottlieb, the CDC's Dr Wayne Shandera, and their colleagues. It described cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (P*P), in five young, previously healthy gay men. The doctors reported that all five men had other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems had completely stopped working. Tragically, two of the men had already died by the time the report was printed, and the others passed away soon after.
This specific edition of the MMWR stands as the first official clinical reporting of what would later become known as the global AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) epidemic.
Today, we pause to memorialise this date and the lives of those five young men. We honour the memory of the millions who followed, and the incredible, self-organised networks of friends, partners, nurses, and advocates who refused to look away when the rest of the world chose indifference. Their courage in the face of the unknown is our permanent heritage, and their lives are remembered with absolute, unyielding respect.
