stis. This article is shorter than the first, but like the first, it focuses on the fact that the victims are homosexual. The numbers have grown, up to one hundred by August, with the majority of the homosexual patients young men and a death rate of 17 percent (Two Fatal 1981). The second article mentions that one woman has contracted the rare disease. The article mentions that sometimes the two diseases occurred separately and sometimes together within the same patient. It is said that the occurrence of these diseases in the general population is quite rare, only about two persons in every three million Americans (Two Fatal 1981).
Considering what is known about AIDS today, it is unmistakable when reading these two early news reports that there was considerable complexity about the nature of the disease and its causes. The August article says "Nobody knows why homosexual mean get the disease" (Two Fatal 1981). The July Article says, "Cancer is not believed to be contagious . . .evidence actually points away from contagion as a cause. None of the patients knew each other" (Altman 1981). The medical investigator said that there was no apparent danger to nonhomosexuals. Both of the articles point in a vague way to defects in the immunological systems, especially seri
...