[Press Kit, International Conference on AIDS (13th : 2000 : Durban, South Africa), compiled by the International AIDS Society]

IAS
INTERNATIONAL
SOCIETY
The epidemic
The virus that will be subsequently identified as responsible for the Human Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome, made its appearance in the western world at the early '80.
1981 At page no. two of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on June 5th 1981: the
investigators from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) of
Atlanta, reported a sudden increase in the diagnosis of cases of Pneumocystis carinii
pneumonia and of Kaposi's Sarcoma in young men who had sex with men, in the
USA. Such diseases had not been previously related to any severe clinical course
in immunocompetent subjects. On 3rd July 1981, the New York Times published
the news. The awareness on the existence of a new syndrome in the history of
medicine started to grow as a consequence of such unusual observation. The
story of AIDS had begun. The infection is soon linked to men who have sex with
men and 422 cases had been diagnosed by the end of the year with 159 deaths.
1982 The CDC related the HIV infection to blood transfusion. Following a number of
cases of infection in haemofiliac patients, reported during an FDA meeting on
blood products, Bruce Voeller, former Director of the National Gay Task Force
proposed to name Acquired Immune-Deficien y Syndrome (AIDS) the new disease. In
the meantime, the number of AIDS cases in the USA were 1614 with 619 deaths.
The Gay Men Health Crisis, the first activists association against AIDS, is
established. Its foundation will foster the development of a strong and deeprooted movement against the infection.
1983 The CDC alerted against the possible risks regarding the blood banks and the
shortage of usable blood packages. A virus with possible relationship to the
infection is isolated by the Pasteur Institution in France. The scientific
community began to understand that the infection was not limited to gay and
haemofiliac but hit also other groups at risk, e.g. the intravenous drug users and
was spreading not only in the USA but all over the world. It was clear that the
infection is targeted towards the immune system which is quickly compromised,
leading to several opportunistic infections that would be easily under control by a
healthy body.
1984 The virus responsible for AIDS is identified: it is called HIV, a virus
which can be transmitted through blood and sexual exposure. There were 11,055
cases of AIDS in the USA and 5,620 deaths.