AIDS first came to the world's attention with a June 5, 1981, report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) among young gay men in Los Angeles.
A second report on cases of PCP and Kaposi sarcoma in New York City and California followed a month later.The disease that would come to be known as AIDS was first mentioned in the Bay Area Reporter in a July 2 Health Shorts column about "Gay Men's Pneumonia" — potentially linked to poppers — buried on page 34.Dr.
Robert Boland's gay health column in the August 13 issue was headlined "New Bugs ... No Alarm." Boland suggested Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and PCP might be linked to cytomegalovirus, a virus in the herpes family. "No one knows.