The Early Years of HIV/AIDS
- 1800s: The origin of HIV infection in humans can be traced back to a species of chimpanzee in Central Africa. Research suggests that the transmission of HIV from chimpanzees to humans may have occurred as early as the late 1800s.
- June 5, 1981: the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) releases a report in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that documents instances of an uncommon lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), occurring in five young, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. This MMWR issue marks the initial official documentation that marks the beginning of the AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) epidemic.
- June 5, 1981: Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien, a dermatologist in New York, contacts the CDC to notify them about a group of instances of a rare and unusually aggressive cancer called Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) among gay men in New York and California. Similar to PCP, KS is linked to individuals with compromised immune systems.
- July 3, 1981: The New York Times publishes an article entitled “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals” and the term “gay cancer” becomes widely used.
- December 10, 1981: CDC reports a case of AIDS that resulted from a blood transfusion.
- May 11, 1982: The New York Times publishes the first mention of the term “GRID” (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), which deepened the perception that AIDS only affects gay men
- September 9, 1982: The CDC identifies all significant modes of HIV transmission, emphasizing that the virus is not spread through casual contact, food, water, air, or environmental surfaces.
- September 24, 1982: The CDC first uses the term “AIDS” (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in a new MMWR and released the first case definition.
- May 20, 1983: Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and her team at the Pasteur Institute in France announce the identification of a retrovirus that may be responsible for AIDS.
- April 23, 1984: Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, particularly Dr. Robert Gallo, independently discover the virus and call it Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus-III (HTLV-III).
- January 11, 1985: The CDC updates the AIDS case definition to acknowledge that AIDS is attributed to a recently identified virus. Additionally, the CDC issues preliminary recommendations for blood screening.
- May 1, 1986: The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses announces the official designation of the virus responsible for AIDS as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
References
- About HIV/AIDS. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published June 30, 2022. Accessed November 10, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/whatishiv.html
- HIV and AIDS Timeline. National Prevention Information Network. Published January 9, 2023. https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/hiv-and-aids-timeline#1980
- Timeline of The HIV and AIDS Epidemic. HIV.gov. Accessed November 10, 2023. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline