Where Are They Now? In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, patients lingered on for months, and sometimes years, barely able to sit upright. One day, quite out of the blue, a young man might experience uncontrollable watery diarrhea that continued every day until he died. Another might awaken and notice dark spots in his vision that progressed inexorably to blindness. ¿From 1981 to 1995 there was little that could be offered these patients, at least of any lasting consequence. Most patients died in slow steps, sometimes in pain, and often, alone. The epidemic came full circle the other day, in 2012.