Before 1983

1982: Vancouver’s first media clipping is published, ‘City gay suffering disease' reads: 'Health officials have confirmed that a Vancouver homosexual is undergoing treatment for a potentially fatal disease that has been found in increasingly high numbers among homosexual males in the U.S.' Vancouver Sun, July 28, 1982.

1959: A sample of blood plasma is taken from a patient in the Congo and is later proven in 1989 that the blood contains HIV. This is known as the first documented AIDS case in the West.

1960s: Evidence shows that West African HIV-2 transferred to people from Sooty mangabey monkeys in Guinea-Bissau.

1976: The first AIDS case in Europe is found in a Danish surgeon who worked in Zaire, and shortly after she passes away.

1976: HIV is found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who passes away.

1979 – 1981: Multiple cases of Kaposi Sarcoma appears in Haiti.

1981: The Centre for Disease Control Atlanta (CDC) publishes the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which details a rare lung infection among otherwise healthy gay men in Los Angeles. This edition marks the first official medical reporting on what is now known as AIDS.

1981: Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the first AIDS organization, is established in New York.

1981: The media adopts the terms ‘Gay-Related Immune Deficiency’ (GRID) , or 'gay cancer' to refer to AIDS.

1982: On December 17, MMWR Reports ‘Unexplained Immunodeficiency and Opportunistic Infections in Infants- New York, New Jersey, California'. The first baby who received multiple blood transfusions, dies from infections similar to other AIDS cases.

1979: The first Canadian AIDS case is retrospectively diagnosed from a man who passes away in Montreal

1979 – 1982: The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reports 41 AIDS cases.