July 24, 2009

Pioneering AIDS Physician Joel Weisman Dies

Joel D. Weisman, MD, one of the first physicians to detect the AIDS epidemic in the United States, died July 18, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was 66. He had heart disease and was sick for the past few months, said Bill Hutton, his partner of 17 years.

According to the article, Weisman was a general practitioner in California in 1980 when he noticed that three of his gay male patients who were seriously ill had similar symptoms. They had fevers, rashes, weight loss and swollen lymph nodes, which seemed to result from compromised immune systems.

Weisman referred two of the patients to Michael S. Gottlieb, MD, an immunologist, who had a patient with similar symptoms. Weisman and Gottlieb with other colleagues authored a report about their cases in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on June 5, 1981. This report is now widely recognized as the official start of the U.S. AIDS epidemic.

Although he continued practicing as a physician, Weisman also became active in the HIV/AIDS community. He was the founding chairman of AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1983. He also was a founding board member of amfAR and was its chairman from 1988 to 1992.

NEW! Scroll down to comment on this story.

Previous Comments: