History
1982
CDC identifies the disease as acquired immunodeficiency virus syndrome(AIDS). Hemophilia patients acquired AIDS which convinced scientists that AIDS can spread by means of contaminated blood.
1983
CDC discovers that females can also acquire AIDS.
Researchers Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi discover the presence of a virus, which they name lymphadenopathy-associated virus, in the gland of an AIDS patient.
1985
The first commercial blood test is licensed by the FDA and it detects antibodies to HIV
1987
AZT, the first antiviral drug, becomes available to treat HIV. Also called zidovudine, the drug delays the developments of AIDS and is a reverse transcriptase inhibitor.
1900
~1900s
In West Central Africa, a hunter, who kills a chimpanzee, is thought to have exposed open wounds to the chimpanzee’s blood which contained the virus HIV. At the time, deaths blamed on other causes.
2000
1981
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) reports five gay men having life threatening cases of PCP Pneumonia.
CDC reports that healthy young men are developing an unusual skin cancer: Kaposi’s sarcoma.
1992
AIDS becomes leading cause of death from men aged 25 to 44.
1995
The FDA approves the first protease inhibitor which breaks down protease, thus inhibiting the replication of certain cells and viruses such as HIV
1996
A highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART is developed which can eliminate a lot of the HIV virus for the time being
1997
Researcher David Ho suggests that HAART can entirely eliminate the HIV virus
Deaths from AIDS in the United States decline by over 40%
2001
Study finds that 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide
2002
The FDA approves a nucleic acid test which is a diagnostic that delivers with an accuracy of 99.6%. This allowed for more widespread testing for HIV.
2011
HIV Prevention Trials Network(HPTN) 052, discovers an antiretroviral therapy which reduces the transmission of HIV by more than 96%
2015
CRISPR Cas9 method of gene editing is patented which leads scientists to believe that CRISPR Cas9 method may eventually treat and cure HIV.
