HIV and men who have sex with men

Since reports of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) virus 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. The first official report on the virus was published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 5, 1981 and detailed the cases of five young gay men who were hospitalised with serious infections. 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. 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.

It is now well understood that HIV does not only affect the gay community but can also infect anybody, regardless of sex, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. However, HIV still severely affects MSM across the globe. MSM are only a small percentage of the U.S. population, but they are consistently the population group most affected by the HIV/AIDS virus and are the largest proportion of American citizens with an AIDS diagnosis who have died. The United Nations estimates that 2 to 20% of MSM are infected with HIV, depending on the region they live in.

Smartphone users: article continues below table

Men who have sex with men (abbreviated as MSM, also known as males who have sex with males) are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they personally identify themselves. Many MSM choose not to (or cannot for other reasons) identify as homosexual or bisexual. Similarly, the label excludes men who identify as gay or bisexual, but who have never had sex with another man, including many gay teenagers.

...
Wikipedia