AIDS apparently was "discovered" around 1980, as a large number of gay men were dying from an unknown (at that time) disease in San Francisco. Who knows how long it took to become an epidemic or for the medical community to recognize the virus, since it can take up to seven years for any symptoms to show up. As a public health issue it became well known around 1982.
My mother works in the medical community on the west coast of the US and AIDS babies were an issue that she briefly dealt with while working in a hospital.
