EL DESCUBRIMIENTO DE HIV/ SIDA

Great Discoveries
By Brigid Delaney for CNN
DISCOVERY HIV/ AIDS
Originally called slimmer's disease, as sufferers lost a lot of weight, the first recorded case of HIV occurred in the Congo in 1977. After several infections, a Danish doctor died of pneumonia, which normally doesn't break though the body's immune system. The components of her disease had not yet been placed together, indicating that this was a new form of illness.
Other cases spread in following year around Africa and in homosexual men in New York and San Francisco. By 1980 55 American men had been diagnosed with the disease. Research began in Europe, the U.S and Africa to ascertain what this new disease could be.
The Centers for Disease Control found that the disease was caused by a virus being passed around by bodily fluids such as semen or blood. In 1981 it published its findings, saying the disease attacked T-cells which help the body fight infection.
By 1983 the disease was isolated by teams of American and French researchers. In 1986 an international committee decided the virus should be called human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Education campaigns were unrolled around the world – advising people to avoid risky sexual behaviour, or sharing needles.
By June 1990 139,765 people had the disease with a 60 per cent mortality rate. The progress of the disease slowed down in the West with education campaigns and the development of protease inhibitors which provided sufferers with almost complete remission. However in Africa the spread and treatment of HIV remains a global concern.