Selma Kaderman Dritz (June 29 1917 – September 3 2008) was an American physician and epidemiologist renowned for her pioneering work in identifying and tracking the early cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in San Francisco during the early 1980s.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dritz initially pursued a career as a concert pianist before turning to medicine. She earned her Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1941, followed by a pediatrics residency at Cook County Hospital. After several years in private pediatric practice and a stint as a pediatric consultant for the Illinois State Health Department, she returned to academia and obtained a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health in 1967.
Public health career
In 1968, Dritz joined the San Francisco Department of Public Health as assistant director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control. Her responsibilities encompassed surveillance of food‑borne illness, influenza, and sexually transmitted infections. By the late 1970s, she was also chief of the Division of Occupational Health.
Role in the AIDS epidemic
In 1981, Dritz and her colleagues observed an unusual cluster of Kaposi’s sarcoma and opportunistic pneumonias among gay men—a pattern that would later be recognized as the first manifestations of AIDS. She promptly reported these cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing critical epidemiological data that helped define the emerging disease. Dritz authored a 1980 article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Medical Aspects of Homosexuality,” which highlighted the public health implications of the outbreak and advocated for interventions such as the temporary closure of bathhouses to curb transmission.
Her systematic case‑finding and data‑sharing were instrumental in shaping early public health responses to HIV/AIDS. Dritz’s work was later chronicled in Randy Shilts’s book And the Band Played On (1987) and its 1993 film adaptation, in which she was portrayed by actress Lily Tomlin.
Later life and legacy
Dritz continued to work in public health until her retirement, remaining an advocate for disease surveillance and education. She passed away in Oakland, California, at the age of 91. Her contributions are recognized as foundational to the epidemiological understanding of HIV/AIDS and to the broader field of infectious‑disease surveillance.