In the 1980s people who thought about AIDS usually were divided into two groups. The first group believed the deadly infectious disease only affected a small number of social outcasts and didn’t warrant increased scientific research. The second believed exactly the opposite.
Dr. James Curran counts himself in the second group. He was chief of the Operational Research Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Venereal Disease Control Division in 1981 when researchers first noticed an unusual number of rare life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers among gay men. Thus the hunt for a cause began, eventually leading to identification of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
Curran will deliver the eighth annual Davenport Lecture on at 3 p.m. Oct. 6 in Forum Hall, Palmer Commons. The lectureship is named for the late Horace W. Davenport, who died in August 2005 at age 92. He was chair of the Department of Physiology from 1956-78 and was of the world’s preeminent gastric physiologists.
The lecture is sponsored by the Center for the History of Medicine with co-sponsors the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Health Management and Policy/School of Public Health, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Urology, Institute for the Humanities, Global REACH, and the Science, Technology and Society Program.
