In the early 1980s, doctors and scientists, who had noticed new and unusual patterns around the world of a disease with varied and aggressive symptoms, named the condition HIV/AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
Via Wikipedia
According to PublicHealth.org, which publishes free healthcare-related resources for students, professionals, and patients,
By 1993, over 2.5 million cases of HIV/AIDS had been confirmed worldwide. By 1995, AIDS was the leading cause of death for Americans age 25 to 44. Elsewhere, new cases of AIDS were stacking up in Russia, Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe. Vietnam, Cambodia and China also reported steady increases in cases. The UN estimated that in 1996 alone, 3 million new infections were recorded in patients under age 25.”
On this day in history, federal researchers announced they had identified the virus causing HIV/AIDS, and important first step for developing a treatment.
A 3D look at the HIV virus. (Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki via LiveScience.com
A report by the CDC observed:
AIDS incidence increased rapidly through the 1980s, peaked in the early 1990s, and then declined. The peak of new diagnoses was associated with the expansion of the AIDS surveillance case definition in 1993. As of 1996, sharp declines were reported in AIDS incidence and deaths.”
The CDC noted that male-to-male sex has been the most common mode of exposure among persons reported with AIDS (46%), followed by injection drug use (25%) and heterosexual contact (11%). Nearly all transmission of HIV through transfusion of blood or blood products occurred before screening of the blood supply for HIV antibody was initiated in 1985. The number of persons reported with AIDS who were exposed through blood transfusions was 284 in 2000, down from a peak of 1098 in 1993. The number of perinatally acquired AIDS cases peaked in 1992 (901 cases), followed by a sharp decline through December 1999. In 1999, 144 cases of perinatally acquired AIDS were diagnosed.
At first, in the US, the mortality rate approached 100%. The first annual International AIDS meetings were held in 1985.
At the end of 1986 and the beginning of 1987, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) administered a clinical trial of Azidothymidine (AZT), the first drug to prove effective against the rapidly replicating HIV virus. Originally a chemotherapy drug, AZT worked so well during its trial that the FDA halted the trial on the grounds that it would be unethical to deprive those patients who received a placebo of the actual drug.
Jerome P. Horwitz, who synthesized AZT, that became the standard treatment for HIV, courtesy Wayne St U Walter P. Reuther Library via Washington Post
Combination therapy approaches developed in 1996 were especially effective, and by 1997 a global standard of care had been adopted.
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece of community folk art in the world as of 2020.
Smithsonian Magazine reports:
When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was first displayed on the National Mall in 1987, it contained 1,920 panels commemorating people who had died of the disease. Twenty-five years later, when the quilt returned to the Mall as part of the 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, it had grown so much in size that its 48,000 panels couldn’t be displayed simultaneously. Instead, organizers showcased smaller sets of 1,500 squares on each day of the two-week celebration.”
Via Smithsonian Mag, photo Courtesy of the National AIDS Memorial / NAMES Project
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