“In 1985, the highest rates of HIV were reported in the U.S. and Europe,” Essex and Kanki wrote later, “but disturbing reports from central Africa indicated that high rates of HIV infection and of AIDS prevailed there, at least in some urban centers.” The focus of suspicion was shifting: not Asia, not Europe, not the United States, but Africa might be the point of origin.
The straights were just banging away in 1985, no idea of the risks they were exposing themselves to
