AIDS/HIV History
by GLPages.com Apr 29, 2023
| 1981 | First cases of unusual immune system failures are medically identified in the US - mainly amongst gay men and injecting drug users. |
| 1982 | Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is defined for the first time |
| Terry Higgins dies, aged 37, on 4th July, at St Thomas' Hospital, London - one of the first people in the UK to die as a result of AIDS. | |
| The Terrence Higgins Trust (www.tht.org.uk) is set up shortly afterwards by a group of Terry's friends. | |
| 1983 | In France, Dr. Luc Montagnier isolcates Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus (LAV), which later becomes known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV |
| A heterosexual AIDS epidemic becomes evident in Central Africa | |
| 1984 | In the US, Dr. Robert Gallo identifies HIV as the cause of AIDS (something some African politicians tragically still fail to accept). |
| 1985 | HIV cases are reported on every continent. |
| HIV antibody tests become more widely available, not least for screening blood donations. | |
| Rock Hudson becomes the first global icon to disclose that he has HIV. | |
| 1986 | Crusaid is founded in the UK. |
| 1987 | The first therapy for AIDS - Azidothymidine (AZT) - enter use in the US. |
| The National AIDS Trust (www.nat.org.uk) is founded in the UK. | |
| 1988 | The World Health Organization (WHO) declares 1st of December as World AIDS Day. |
| Women account for half of all adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. | |
| 1990 | Around 1 million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS. |
| 1991 | The Red Ribbon becomes the international symbol of AIDS awareness. |
| 1992 | Gay Men Fighting AIDS, latterly GMFA (www.gmfa.org.uk), is founded in the UK. |
| 1994 | Scientists develop the first treatment regiment to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission. |
| British film director Derek Jarman dies. | |
| 1995 | An HIV outbreak in Eastern Europe is detected amongst injecting drug users. |
| 1996 | The (albeit US-dominated) United Nations' HIV/AIDS program, UNAIDS, becomes operational. |
| Evidence of the effectiveness of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) is demonstrated, soon revolutionizing treatment around the globe - but mainly in developed countries. | |
| 1997 | HAART starts to become publicly available in parts of Africa. |
| 1998 | 39 pharmaceutical companies (shamefully) file a law suit against the South African government to contest legislation aimed at reducing the cost of medicines. |
| 1999 | The first HIV vaccine trials start in Thailand. |
| 2000 | UNAIDS & WHO announce teh Accelerating Access Initiative, a joint program with pharma companies, supposedly to increase HIV treatment in developing countries. |
| 2001 | UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls for an annual US $7-10 billion "war chest" to combat AIDS in developing countries, albeit the bulk of which will - for beter or worse - end up lining the pockets of the giant pharma companies' shareholders, or backing ineffective abstinence-based programs. |
| 2002 | HIV is the leading cause of death worldwide for those 15-59 years of age. |
| FDA approves the first rapid finger-prick AIDS test. | |
| 2005 | Former cabinet minister Chris Smith (now Lord Smith) reveals he has known he has been HIV positive since 1987. |
| At the G8 Summit in Scotland, world leaders pledge to aim for universal access to anti-retroviral treatment worldwide by 2010. As the end of 2005, only 1.3 million people in low- and middle-income countries are receiving such treatment. | |
| 53,000 people are estimated as living with HIV/AIDS in the UK, where around 16,000 lives have already been claimed since the beginning of the epidemic. Around a third of those living with HIV do not know of their infection. Around three quarters of those actually infected in the UK (as opposed to those diagnosed here, but infected abroad) are men who have sex with men. | |
| 2006 | Around 40 million people are currently living with HIV worldwide today; additionally, over 25 million have already died of AIDS. |
| Around 5 million are newly infected worldwide in the last 12 months (about 14,000 a day), most of them in Africa; 1 in 4 adults in Zimbabwe and Botswana already have HIV. | |
| Preliminary figures suggest 8,000 new diagnoses can be expected in the UK - more than in any year since the epidemic began. | |
| Despite growing numbers of people infected with HIV, a National AIDS Trust report finds people in the UK are generally less aware of how HIV is transmitted than they were five years ago, with a shocking 9% drop in those who know that HIV can be passed on via comdom-less sex between two men, and a 12% drop in those who know it can be transmitted via condom-less sex between a man and woman. Moreover, 8% of people still claim to have zero knowledge about how HIV is transmitted. | |
| Only one in five (19%) of UK men who are ignorant of their HIV status know about PEP - a treatment which can be highly effective in eliminating HIV is commenced shortly after infection. | |
| A 47-year old man becomes the first gay UK male to be convicted of deliverately infecting his partner with HIV. | |
| There is still no vaccine or cure for HIV/AIDS, and many scientists doubt one is imminent. | |
| 2007 | WHO reports the number of people living with AIDS worldwide has fallen from 39.5 million to 33.2 million in one year. They attribute the decrease to be improved data collection and more accurate estimates in India and five sub-Saharan African countries. |
| 2008 | A man in Berlin, Germany seems to be cured of AIDS after doctors give him transplanted blood stem cells from a person naturally resistant to the virus. Such treatment is difficult; the patient's immune system must essentially be shut down and restarted with the new stem cells, but first a donor must be found who is a good tissue match for the patient and has a rare genetic mutation, called Delta 32, which is resistant to HIV. Doctors hope this case will help in developing therapies that artificially induce the Delta 32 mutation. |
| 2009 | President Obama announces the removal of the travel ban that prevents HIV-positive people from entering the US. |
| 4 million people in developing and transitional countries are receiving treatment for HIV; 9.5 million are still in immediate need of treatment. | |
| 2010 | WHO releases its revised antiretroviral guidelines for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Pope Benedict speaks of condom use, saying that they can be used by HIV positive prostitutes to prevent further contagion. Results from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa's (CAPRISA) study show that the antiretroviral vaginal microbicides reduce the risks of new HIV infecions among women by 39%-54%. |
| 2011 | A small drug trial run by Sangamo is believed to be a "game changer" in AIDS treatment, utilizing a single infusion rather than the cocktail method. HIV/AIDS remains one of the world's most challenging health issues, with over 7 million people in low- and middle-income countries still lacking access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). |
| 2012 | In January 2012, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged US $750 million to support the Global Fund. |
| In June, UN Women joined UNAIDS as a co-sponsor. | |
| The Republic of Moldova lifted travel restrictions for people living with HIV, leaving 46 countries still imposing some form of travel restriction. | |
| In July, it was reported that 6.2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving ART, raising the proportion of people who were in need of treatment and receiving it to 56 percent. This represented a 100 percent increase in less than a decade. | |
| The US' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced their approval of using an antiretroviral drug combination for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the chances of sexual transmission of HIV. | |
| The World AIDS Day 2012 'Results' report showed that the number of new HIV infections had more than halved across 25 low- and middle-income countries since 2001; more than 73 percent reduction was reported in Malawi, and 71 percent reduction in Botswana. | |
| For the first time in majority, 54 percent of people in need of ART were receiving it. Young people between the ages of 15-24 accounted for 40 percent of all new adult HIV infections and were highlighted as vulnerable group in need of more targeted HIV preventions services. | |
| 2013 | Law reforms in Mongolia saw the removal of all travel restrictions and other discriminatory policies for people living with HIV. |
| In February, UNAIDS welcomed the new collaboration between the Medicines Patent Pol and ViiV Healthcare to increase access to antiretroviral therapy for children. | |
| In May, UNAIDS and The Lancet established a new commission of political and health leaders to explore the post-2015 agenda of AIDS and global health. | |
| "The Global Update on HIV Treatment 2013" by UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF showed an acceleration in the roll out and uptake of antiretroviral therapy since 2011. A record 9.7 million people living with HIV were accessing treatment in 2012 compared to 8.1 million in 2011. | |
| Moreover, FAR--The Foundation for AIDS Research-and AVAC announced that from July 2012, 13 countries with generalized epidemics showed growth in the number of people of ART was greater than the number of new infections. | |
| In October, Uzbekistan lifted all restrictions on entry, stay and residence for people living with HIV in the country. | |
| A UNICEF report in November showed significant progress towards preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV with over 850,000 new childhood infections averted between 2005 and 2012 in low- and middle-income countries. | |
| AIDS-related deaths among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 increased by 50 percent between 2005 and 2012, rising from 71,000 to 110,000. In 2012, an estimated 2.1 million adolescents were living with HIV. | |
| Domestic spending on HIV increated, accounting for approximately of 53 percent of global HIV resources in 2012. The total global resources available for HIV in 2012 were an estimated $18.9 billion. | |
| In Uganda, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (or "Bahati Bill") was passed against a backdrop of international condemnation. | |
| 2014 | China reports 15% rise in new HIV infections over the previous year, at about 100,000 cases. |
| Rates of new HIV infections & AIDS-related deaths rise faster in the Middle East & N. Africa than anywhere else globally, probably due to cultural/religious stigmatization & punitive legal systems. | |
| World AIDS Day--Accoring to UNAIDS, 78 million people have become infected with HIV since the onset of the epidemic. | |
| 2015 | New York rules that not disclosing HIV status before sex with potential partner is a misdemeanor instead of a felony. |
| Taiwan drops ban on HIV-positive entrants after the passage of amendments to the HIV Infection Control & Patient's Rights Protections Act. | |
| Scientists discover that HIV evolved on as many as 13 separate occasions from ancestral viruses that infected monkeys & apes to then infect humans. |
See more at: www.aidsmap.com
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