AIDS Issues Define Physician’s Career

On June 5, 1981, a short article appeared in a medical journal that described an unusual situation--five young men in Los Angeles were all suffering from pneumocystis pneumonia and other diseases found in people who have severely suppressed immune systems. All five were gay.

The article was the first published report in the world on the condition later named acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Its lead author was Dr. Michael Gottlieb, who went on to become one of the most prominent of the physicians dealing with the medical, social and political aspects of AIDS.

Gottlieb still treats AIDS patients primarily and continues to be a pioneer. His main practice is in North Hollywood, where he shares space with the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation in an unusual joint venture that serves his patients as well as those who have limited resources to pay for medical care.

Gottlieb has been present for many of the defining moments of the epidemic. He was the physician for Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Glazer, and was one of the founders of several AIDS care and research foundations.

Along with fame came controversy. During the early years of AIDS research, he often took on the medical establishment, which he believed was moving too slowly in committing funds to the field.

And while his early discoveries brought renown to UCLA, where he was a faculty member, he was refused tenure at that institution.

But unlike many physicians who moved away from the field because of its highly charged political atmosphere, Gottlieb continues to work with leading-edge therapies and is still an outspoken advocate for AIDS causes.