February 3 would be the birthday of Robert Rayford - the first AIDS death in the US

He was born in 1953, seems to have had a hard life, and certainly had an awful death.

According to Wikipedia: "In early 1968, Rayford, then 15 years old, admitted himself to the City Hospital in St. Louis. His legs and genitals were covered in warts and sores. He also had severe swelling of the testicles and pelvic region, which later spread to his legs, causing a misdiagnosis of lymphedema. He had grown thin and pale and suffered from shortness of breath. Rayford told the doctors that he had experienced these symptoms since at least late 1966. Tests discovered a severe chlamydia infection which had, unusually, spread throughout his body. Rayford declined a rectal examination request from hospital personnel, and was described as uncommunicative and withdrawn. Dr. Memory Elvin-Lewis, who was assigned to his case, would recall of his shy and somewhat hesitant personality: "He was the typical 15-year-old who is not going to talk to adults, especially when I‘m white and he’s black. He was not a communicative individual. He knew the minute I walked into the room that I wanted something more from him—more blood, more lymph fluid, more something." He had a tendency to contradict his statements regarding his sexual history; at one point boasting himself as "the stud of all time" and at another point claiming to have only had sexual intercourse once, that being with a young woman from his neighborhood, whom he attributed as the source of his illness. Doctors treating Rayford suspected that he was an underage prostitute, and was the recipient of receptive anal intercourse, but never considered the possibility of him being a victim of child molestation. Eventually, he was moved to Barnes-Jewish Hospital (then called Barnes Hospital).

In late 1968 Rayford's condition seemed to stabilize, but by March 1969 his symptoms reappeared and worsened. He had increased difficulty breathing, and his white blood cell count had plummeted. The doctors found that his immune system was dysfunctional. He developed a fever and died of pneumonia at 11:20 pm on May 15, 1969."