HIV and men who have sex with men

Since reports of emergence and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States between the 1970s and 1980s,^[1] the HIV/AIDS epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals.^[1] It was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in 1981.^[1][2] The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981, and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections.^[3] A month later, The New York Times reported that 41 homosexuals had been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma, and eight had died less than 24 months after the diagnosis was made.^[4]

By 1982, the condition was referred to in the medical community as "gay-related immune deficiency" (GRID), "gay cancer", and "gay compromise syndrome".^[5] It was not until July 1982 that the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was suggested to replace GRID,^[6] and it was not until September that the CDC first officially used the AIDS acronym.^[7] Scientists and physicians now know that HIV/AIDS does not only affect MSM and can infect anybody, regardless of sex and sexual orientation.^[8][9] Nonetheless, MSM are still considered a "key population" globally, meaning they have high rates of HIV and are at high risk for acquiring it.^[8][10]

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are a small percentage of the U.S. population, but are consistently the population group most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, and are the largest proportion of American citizens with an AIDS diagnosis who have died.^[11] The United Nations estimates the global median HIV prevalence among MSM at 7.7%.^[12]