1981 AD
First public report of cases leading to AIDS identification
Epidemics & public health · VIH/sida · Surveillance · Enfermedades emergentes
On 5 June 1981, CDC’s MMWR reported five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia among previously healthy young men in Los Angeles. The report was later recognized as the first publication on the illness that would be called AIDS and activated epidemiological investigation and surveillance definitions; it did not yet identify the causal agent.
Precision, calendar, and review
- Start
- year · no uncertainty qualifier in this record
- Calendar and convention
- Historical-era years; the source calendar is not identified. No conversion of days is assumed.
- Year zero
- The scale goes from 1 BCE to 1 CE without year zero. Changing era names changes labels only.
- Documentary review
- Date not recorded
Reading the date: point event.
Sources
- www.cdc.gov (opens in a new tab)
Source provenance and scope
- Publication date
- Pending verification: the source could not be accessed
- Bibliographic date checked
- 2026-09-23
The correspondence between this reference and individual claims has not yet been itemized.
This record is an editorial synthesis. Consult the sources to check claims and their limits. Chronological relationships alone do not establish causation.