The syndrome, that is the collection of symptoms, is called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) by some scientists.

Scientists begin to move towards a consensus that these diverse symptoms are caused by a single infectious microbe.

The first article appears in the Wall Street Journal about GRID affecting women and male heterosexual drug users.

It is decided the illnesses some Haitian refugees in Miami have should also be considered part of this syndrome. Soon it is decided that the illnesses hemophiliacs have been getting should also be included as part of this syndrome.

The syndrome is renamed because it is decided that it does not just affect gay men. It is given the new name AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is decided that it is an illness resulting from a failure, or deficiency, of the immune system to work properly. The word acquired is used because it is decided by some scientists that this collection of symptoms in these people must be caused by an infectious microbe.

The New York Native, runs side-by-side commentaries on the issue of the cause of AIDS. One physician argues that the "available evidence overwhelmingly suggest that AIDS is caused by [an] undiscovered transmissable [sic] agent." The other commentary, written by Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz argues that the conditions called AIDS are caused by different factors in different people.

HEAL, Health Education AIDS Liaison, is founded in New York with the mission to "provide information and support for alternative and holistic approaches to AIDS and related conditions." (However, since that time, HEAL has grown to have chapters all over the world and is the largest AIDS activist organization in the world which supports the notion that HIV is not the cause of AIDS.)

AIDS is said to occur in blood transfusion recipients and in babies of drug-addicted mothers.

AIDS has now been "reported" in fourteen nations world-wide.