However, globally, MSM are still considered a 'key population,' meaning they have high rates of HIV and are at high risk for acquiring the virus.
Scientists now know that HIV does not only affect the gay community and can infect anybody, regardless of sex, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. By 1982, the condition was referred to in the medical community as Gay-related immune deficiency (GRID), 'gay cancer,' and 'gay compromise syndrome.' It was not until July 1982 that the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was suggested to replace GRID, and even then it was not until September that the CDC first used the AIDS acronym in an official report. 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. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on Jand detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalized with serious infections. Since reports of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) began to emerge in the United States in the 1980s, the HIV epidemic has frequently been linked to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) by epidemiologists and medical professionals. HIV among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men
