HIV AIDS Pandemic

About HIV AIDS Pandemic

HIV AIDS was first recognized in 1981 when the CDC reported unusual pneumocystis pneumonia clusters in young gay men in Los Angeles. The virus HIV was identified by Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre Sinoussi at the Pasteur Institute and Robert Gallo at the NIH in 1983 to 1984. HIV originated from cross species transmission of simian immunodeficiency virus SIV from chimpanzees in Central Africa, estimated to have occurred in the early 20th century. As of the 2020s, the pandemic had killed an estimated 40 million or more people globally. Antiretroviral therapy ART transformed HIV from an almost uniformly fatal disease into a manageable chronic condition for people with access to treatment. The approval of AZT in 1987 was the first major drug milestone. Combination therapy in 1996 reduced mortality dramatically. Pre exposure prophylaxis PrEP was first approved in the United States in 2012. No vaccine has been successfully developed despite decades of research. The search for an HIV vaccine continues with mRNA approaches and broadly neutralizing antibodies.