HIV/AIDS Timeline[4][9][10][12] |
1930s | A type of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is transferred to humans in central Africa between 1884 and 1924. The mutated virus becomes HIV-1. |
1959 | The first known case of HIV in a human occurs in a person who died in the Congo. |
1966 | HIV probably enters Haiti. Many Haitians are working in the Congo, which provides the opportunity for infection. |
1968 | HIV most likely arrives in the United States this year via Haiti. |
1969 | Robert Rayford, a St. Louis teenager, dies of an illness that baffles his doctors. Eighteen years later it is confirmed that he had HIV. He is the first known American to have died from AIDS. |
1975 | Doctors in Africa see a rise in wasting and opportunistic infections, which are later determined to be AIDS. |
1976 | Norwegian sailor Arvid Noe dies, along with his wife and young daughter. It is later confirmed that he contracted HIV/AIDS in Africa during the early 1960s. |
1977 | A San Francisco prostitute gives birth to the first of three children who are later diagnosed with AIDS. After their deaths, blood tests revealed they all three died of AIDS. The mother died in 1987 of AIDS. |
1980 | French Canadian flight attendant Gaetan Dugas pays his first known visit to New York bathhouses. He would later be deemed “Patient Zero” because he was connected to many early cases of AIDS in the United States.
Rick Wellikoff, a Brooklyn schoolteacher, dies of AIDS in New York City. He is the 4th citizen to die from AIDS in the United States.
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1981 | AIDS is detected in California and New York. The first cases are among gay men, and then injecting drug users.
“Gay Cancer,” or Gay Related Immune Deficiency, claims 121 deaths in the U.S. since the mid-1970s.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports the first cases of a rare pneumonia in young gay men in the June 5 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which is later determined to be AIDS.
First known case of HIV/AIDS in the United Kingdom.
The official beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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1982 | AIDS is reported among hemophiliacs and Haitians in the U.S.
AIDS is reported in 5 European countries; 285 cases have been reported in 17 U.S. states.
The CDC begins formally tracking all AIDS cases.
The name “AIDS” is established.
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1983 | AIDS is detected among non-drug-using women and children.
Three thousand AIDS cases have been reported in the USA. One thousand people have died from it.
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1984 | Scientists identify HIV (originally called HTLV-III or LAV) as the cause of AIDS.
Western scientists realize that AIDS is widespread in parts of Africa.
HIV-positive teenager Ryan White is banned from attending school. He contracted the virus through a blood transfusion as part of his treatment for hemophilia.
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1985 | AIDS is detected in China and now has been identified in all regions of the world.
An HIV test is licensed for screening blood supplies.
Actor Rock Hudson dies of AIDS, which raises its awareness.
Congress allocates $70 million for AIDS research.
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1986 | Over 38,000 cases of AIDS have been reported from 85 countries.
Scientists locate a second type of AIDS virus, HIV-2.
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1987 | AZT is the first drug approved for treating AIDS. It prolongs the lives of some patients by reducing infections. |
1988 | World AIDS Day is established. |
1990 | Globally, over 8 million people have HIV. |
1991 | Globally, over 10 million people have HIV, including 1 million in the U.S. More than 36,000 Americans have died of AIDS since the late 1970s.
NBA star Magic Johnson announces he is HIV positive.
Rock star Freddie Mercury dies of bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.
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1992 | The first clinical trials using combinations of multiple drugs begin.
FDA begins accelerated approval of experimental AIDS drugs.
Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov dies from AIDS-related complications. He was infected during a blood transfusion in 1983.
Anthony Perkins, known for his role of Norman Bates in Psycho, dies of AIDS.
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1993 | AZT is shown to have no benefit to those in the early stages of HIV infection.
U.S. annual AIDS deaths approach 45,000.
Tennis star Arthur Ashe dies from AIDS-related complications.
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1994 | Infant HIV infections decrease in developed countries because of AZT.
AIDS-related illness are the leading cause of death for adults 25-44 years old in the U.S.
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1995 | The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) is created.
Saquinavir, the first protease inhibitor (which reduces the ability of AIDS to spread to new cells) is approved.
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1996 | Combination antiretroviral treatment begins to be highly effective against HIV. |
1997 | Due to new drugs, AIDS deaths begin to decline in developed countries.
Globally, over 22 million have HIV.
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1999 | Researchers believe that a retrovirus (simian immunodeficiency virus) from the chimpanzee Pan troglodyte passed to humans in west Africa and developed into types of HIV.
Edward Hooper in his book The River accuses doctors who developed and gave the oral polio vaccine in 1950s Africa of unintentionally starting the AIDS epidemic. His book was later refuted.
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2000 | WHO estimates between 15% and 20% of new HIV infections worldwide are the result of blood transfusions. |
2007 | A San Francisco man, Timothy Ray Brown, who suffered from both leukemia and HIV is cured of HIV through a bone marrow transplant in Germany. Similar cases are being studied. |
2011 | Timothy Ray Brown, the first patient cured of HIV, is still HIV negative 4 years after the initial treatment. |
2013 | A toddler was “functionally cured” of HIV.
A New York Times article says that 12 people of 75 who began combination antiretroviral therapy soon after becoming infected may have been “functionally cured” of HIV.
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