History of AIDS June 5,1981,CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report awareness of AIDS began with the publishing of a little noticed for a strange outbreak of killer pneumonia was spreading among gay men Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) began tracking a growing population of young men,women, and babies,whose immune systems were nearly destroyed. Late in 1982,the condition began to be referred to as AlDS Source:American Red CrossJune 5, 1981, CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report : awareness of AIDS began with the publishing of a little noticed for a strange outbreak of killer pneumonia was spreading among gay men Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking a growing population of young men, women, and babies, whose immune systems were nearly destroyed. Late in 1982, the condition began to be referred to as AIDS. Source: American Red Cross History of AIDS