Sept. 27 is National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NGMHAAD) calls on gay men across the U.S. to remember that the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic may be in sight, but the epidemic isn't over -- and men who have sex with men are still at high risk. The number of gay men already living with HIV in this country may be as high as 1 in every 8.

NGMHAAD calls on gay men to lead the movement to end the epidemic. We know now how to do it. Routine HIV testing for all, every 3 to 6 months for gay men and others in high-risk groups. Immediate access to HIV treatment and support services for everyone who tests positive.

LifeScience Moment: Ether was first used as a surgical anesthetic

On Sept. 30, 1846, ether was first used as a surgical inhalation anesthetic by William Morton to extract a tooth from merchant Eben Frost at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Crawford Long, an American physician and pharmacist in Jefferson, Georgia, used ether for the first time on March 30, 1842 to remove a tumor from the neck of James M. Venable. Long subsequently removed a second tumor from Venable, and later used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. The results of these trials were published in 1848 in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal.

It's a Small World
	MERS-CoV, showing the spherical particles within the cytoplasm of an infected cell (Photo credit: Cynthia Goldsmith/Azaibi Tamin).

Science Quote

"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."