We were not far removed from treating HIV patients the way patients with Hansen's disease were treated in the past. When AIDS started to spread, people were afraid to be near HIV positive individuals. People were not sure if it could be contacted by means other than sex. They thought it might be airborne, passed through touch, or transmitted by a vector such as the mosquito. At funerals, the casket was covered with a glass top because no one knew if the disease could be spread from the body.