It was July 23, 1985, and veteran Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd broke the biggest scoop of his career with that first line. In his story, Archerd revealed that movie star Rock Hudson was being treated for AIDS, marking the first time that a well-known celebrity was revealed to have the dreaded disease.
Hudson, although rumored to be gay for many years, had never publicly admitted his sexuality and was deeply closeted to the general public. Unfortunately, it was a time when hysteria about AIDS and its transmission was common, and any revelation would be career suicide.
Although Archerd initially was vilified when Hudson’s public relations machine denied the story, the truth eventually came out. As the New York Times later acknowledged, “Without Army Archerd’s column, there is a very real chance that the world might have suspected but never known what killed Rock Hudson." Hudson died in October 1985.
The world has since come a long way from those days, which date to a time when the HIV link to AIDS was little known. Today, we know that the HIV is the cause of what eventually becomes AIDS. The good news is that HIV infections can be controlled, thanks to the development of a drug cocktail that helps suppress HIV’s devastating effects on cells.
Initial Symptoms of HIV
When the virus passes into the body, HIV attacks immune system cells called CD4 cells (or T-cells, as some call them). The HIV inserts itself and works to destroy the cells, lowering the overall immune system function to where opportunistic infections and diseases can take hold, leading to full-blown AIDS.