The emergence and rapid spread of AIDS in the 1980s led to fears about procedures such as blood donation. Very little was known about the cause of the disease, which later was discovered to be a virus called HIV.
In the early 80s, not much was known about AIDS or HIV. It was erroneously and dangerously characterized by the media as a disease affecting gay men, African Americans, and drug users.
Cal State LA continued to serve as a center for public health in the 1980s by offering flu vaccines much in the same way it had offered polio vaccines in the 1960s.
Sponsored jointly by the NAACP and Anheuser-Busch, Cal State LA offered free testing for Sickle Cell Anemia and other diseases on campus during the 1980s.