Joel Weisman

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Joel Weisman
Born(1943-02-20)February 20, 1943
DiedJuly 18, 2009(2009-07-18) (aged 66)
Nationality
Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences
OccupationOsteopathic Physician

Joel D. Weisman

AIDS during his work as a general practitioner
in the United States. He later became an advocate for the development of treatments and prevention of the disease.

Early life and education

Weisman was born in

Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, graduating in 1970 with a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). He practiced medicine in his hometown of Carteret, New Jersey, for several years and ended his brief marriage by disclosing that he was gay.[1][2]

Discovery and treatment of AIDS

He moved to

fungal infections.[2]

Weisman referred two of these cases in 1981 to

New England Journal of Medicine.[6]

Weisman immediately started warning his patients that the disease was sexually transmitted and that behavioral changes were needed to help prevent its spread, a warning that was often disregarded. Many of his friends died. He became involved in efforts to provide treatment options for AIDS patients, establishing AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1983 and developing Southern California's first AIDS unit at the Sherman Oaks Hospital. When amfAR was founded in 1985 by Gottlieb and Mathilde Krim, Weisman was a board member and became chairman from 1988 to 1992. His medical practice grew into the Pacific Oaks Medical Group, one of the largest treating patients with HIV / AIDS.[2]

In Weisman's obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Gottlieb described him as "a very astute physician" who recognized "that something out of the ordinary was happening" by being "alert to unusual symptoms in his patients". Krim described how Weisman immediately knew that "he was observing something that was never seen before."[2]

Personal

Weisman died at age 66 due to

domestic partner of 17 years, Bill Hutton, as well as by a daughter and granddaughter, a brother and two nieces. Timothy Bogue, his partner for 10 years, died of AIDS in 1991.[2]

References

  1. ^ Colvin, Richard. "Merciful M. D. Pioneering Physician Also Political Advocate for AIDS Victims", Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1988. Accessed July 1, 2013. "Weisman teamed up with Rogolsky in 1975 after three years in private practice in Carteret, NJ, his hometown."
  2. ^ a b c d e f Woo, Elaine. "Dr. Joel D. Weisman dies at 66; among the first doctors to detect AIDS", Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009. Accessed July 24, 2009.
  3. ^ Staff. "Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles", Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 30, 1996 / Vol. 45 / No. 34. Accessed July 24, 2009. This is a reprint by the CDC of the original June 4, 1981, report.
  4. ^ via Associated Press. "Doctor Who Co-Authored First AIDS Report Dies", The New York Times, July 23, 2009. Accessed July 24, 2009.
  5. ^ Fee, Elizabeth; and Brown, Theodore M. "Michael S. Gottlieb and the Identification of AIDS", American Journal of Public Health, June 2006; 96(6): 982–983. Accessed July 24, 2009.
  6. New England Journal of Medicine
    , December 10, 1981;305(24):1425-31. Accessed July 24, 2009.
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