Journal of the International AIDS Society Blog

History of HIV/AIDS: on this day – 27 July 1982. A syndrome is named.

On 5^th of June 1981 doctors in Los Angeles, USA first described particularly serious forms of Pneumocystis pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma, in a small group of young homosexual men. The findings were recorded in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control.

Kaposi’s sarcoma, a malignant tumor of the connective tissue, showed up as distinctive skin lesions. It could simultaneously affect lymph nodes throughout the body, the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. It quickly became a hallmark of HIV/AIDS as HIV-positive patients often develop this type of cancer.

These illnesses were also observed in people with haemophilia, other people receiving blood transfusions and people using intravenous drugs. By 1982 common symptoms were also seen in partners and infants of those infected, whose immune system would unequivocally become compromised.

On 27^th of July 1982, the designation Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was agreed upon in Washington, D.C., in a meeting of representatives of homosexual communities, federal bureaucrats and representatives of the Centers for Disease Control¹. A syndrome designates a set of symptoms occurring at the same time.

In January 1983 Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, isolated a retrovirus that destroyed T lymphoctyes from the lymph system of a patient afflicted with an immune deficiency². The name Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was officially adopted for this type of retrovirus in 1987.

For more information regarding a timeline on HIV/AIDS.

Today researchers believe strains of the virus crossed over from primates to humans in the 1930s³ and HIV was further spread between humans creating the epidemic we face today.

There is still no cure nor a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. The only way to know if we are infected with HIV is to get tested, an integral part of HIV prevention strategies. To learn more about HIV testing.

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Article references:

¹ Time (1982, July 27). A Name for the Plague. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from http://www.time.com/time/80days/820727.html

² Science (1983, May 20). Isolation of a T-lymphotrophic Retrovirus from a Patient at Risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;220/4599/868

³ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (2001, June 29). The Origins of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Viruses: Where and When? Retrieved July 27, 2010, from  http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/356/1410/867.long

Posted by Rose-Marie Neuenschwander at 11:35    Comments (0)