From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette…

“People were dying and we didn’t know why,” said Marc C. E. Wagner [researcher at the University of Pittsburgh]. “I knew it was a devastating condition, even early on.”

Through gay bars and picnics, word began to spread about a study at the University of Pittsburgh investigating the disease, and on April 1, 1984, the study officially began recruiting its first participants.

Newspaper headline announces recruitment for the Men’s Study in 1984.

Forty years later, the Pitt Men’s Study is one of the longest-running studies on HIV and AIDS in the country. About 2000 men have participated since the beginning, coming every six months to give blood samples and answer questionnaires, building a scientific goldmine in the process.

Read the full article on the Post Gazette webpage.