The history of HIV

AIDS and HIV have come a long way since the diseases were first discovered. The world went from knowing nothing about HIV to hearing wild stories about HIV to finally understanding  the history of about HIV and recognizing that it’s a serious condition that science and medicine need to work together to cure. The storied history of HIV has in fact been quite the interesting road.

History of HIV: The beginning

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) didn’t have a name until 1982. Up until then, there was little known about HIV. It started gaining a reputation in the homosexual community. One of the first misconceptions about HIV was that it could only infect gay men, but then cases began popping up in the heterosexual community as well. In New York, HIV was becoming a huge problem because of the way the disease was transmitted. Because New York had many people living different lifestyles in close proximity, the history of HIV has been tied very closely to New York City.

It took some time for the Center for Disease Control to acknowledge AIDS and HIV, but once they began learning about HIV and how quickly it was spreading, they declared an epidemic. After months and months of activists fighting for recognition and publicity, The New York Times began to run stories about HIV and how the disease and scientists were progressing. Different options of treatment for HIV began to be developed and the disease was beginning to be taken seriously.

Two men, Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier, led two research groups dedicated to studying about HIV and finding the best treatment for HIV. While their reports initially contradicted a few aspects about HIV, the truth was found by taking different parts from each report and reproducing the experiments. Finally, methods of transmission for AIDS and HIV were discovered.

History of HIV: Where are we today?

There have been discrepancies and misconceptions about HIV from the very beginning. The history of HIV has been filled with shame, ignorance, and reluctance. No one wanted to acknowledge anything about HIV or dedicate resources to learning about HIV because of the stigma that came with the disease. Today, different options of treatment for HIV have been discovered and doctors are specializing in treating the disease and patients with compassion and kindness, a far cry from the denial that they would have faced little over 20 years ago.

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