Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1984. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - December 26, 1984
Doctors at Nassau Hospital in Mineola, L.I., found a 37-year-old body builder they believe might have caught the disease in that manner.
Because of evidence that body builders sometimes share hypodermic needles at health clubs, the doctors said other body builders might also be at risk.
The warning was printed as a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine.
"Our experience with the patient described in this report indicates that intramuscular injection of long-acting anabolic steroids through shared needles may serve as another mode for dissemination of the AIDS virus," the letter said.
Anabolic steroids are used to increase the amount of protein stored in the body as muscle. Body builders sometimes use it to make their muscles bigger. Other athletes use it to increase their strength.
Anabolic steroids are not approved for use in body building by the Food and Drug Administration. But it is not illegal to use them for that purpose, an official of the agency said.
AIDS is believed to be caused by a virus that can be transmitted through contact with blood products and other body fluids.
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