Pitt AIDS study hits milestone birthday, turns to questions of aging with HIV
From WESA…
This month marks 40 years since the Pitt Men’s Study started enrolling volunteers in what has become one of the longest-running U.S. studies of HIV and AIDS.
AIDS is the most severe stage of HIV, which interferes with the immune system’s ability to fight infection and disease. The first cases of AIDS in the U.S. were reported in 1981. The National Institutes of Health says that since then more than 700,000 thousand people have died in the U.S. from AIDS-related causes – including some 27,000 Pennsylvanians. Globally, more than 40 million people have died from the virus.
The Community Advisory Board of the Pitt Men’s Study meeting with with Dr. Anthony Silvestre and Dr. Charles Rinaldo, in the late 1980’s, at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Pitt Men’s Study focuses on gay men since this population is at higher risk of contracting HIV. Even though participants’ identities were kept confidential, scientists had to build trust within Pittsburgh’s gay community to find potential research volunteers. One of the more important resources were gay and lesbian bar owners.