Angels in
America: AIDS Timeline
1980s | 1990s | 2000+ |Timelines on the Web
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1981 - U.S. Centers for Disease Control documents the first cases of a mysterious immune system disorder in five homosexual men in Los Angeles
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1982 - After determining the disease is also expressed in heterosexual women and drug users, the CDC gives it the new name AIDS — acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
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1983-It was discovered that HIV/AIDS could be passed heterosexually from male to female.
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1984-Scientists at the Institute Pasteur in France and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland announce that they have separately isolated the virus that causes AIDS, later named the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By year's end, 7,000 Americans have AIDS.
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1985-The Food and Drug Administration approves the first blood tests to detect the presence of antibodies to HIV. To reduce the risk of spreading the disease through transfusions of tainted blood, U.S. blood banks introduce blood-screening tests.
Actor Rock Hudson, the first major public figure known to have AIDS, dies. -
1986-The U.S. government charged a hospital with violation of civil rights when they fired a nurse with AIDS and didn't offer him another job. This was the first of such discrimination cases.
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1987-The FDA approves the first anti-AIDS drug, AZT (zidovudine), marketed under the name Retrovir by Burroughs Wellcome. President Ronald Reagan gives his first speech on AIDS. By year's end, an estimated 36,000 Americans have been diagnosed with the disease and 20,000 have died.
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1988-Surgeon General C. Everett Koop distributes 107 million copies of the pamphlet "Understanding AIDS," marking the launch of the first nationwide AIDS education campaign in the U.S.
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1989 - Dideoxyinosine (DDI), an antiretroviral drug for treating patients at advanced stages of infection with the AIDS virus is on the market. It is used in adult and pediatric AIDS patients who are intolerant to or whose health has significantly deteriorated while on zidovudine (AZT), the only other approved treatment for infection with the AIDS virus.
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1990-Ryan White dies at age 19. The Indiana teenager, a hemophiliac infected with the AIDS virus through a tainted blood transfusion, gained national attention for his fight to attend public school despite concerns his condition might be contagious. Within months, Congress passes the Ryan White CARE Act, which offers better care for AIDS patients who don't have adequate health insurance or financial resources.
By year's end, more than 370,000 AIDS cases have been reported to the World Health Organization; public health officials estimate 8-10 million people have the disease. -
1991-Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces he has tested positive for HIV.
The FDA approves Videx, a drug marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb that has similar disease-fighting abilities to AZT.
In November, the number of AIDS cases in the U.S. reaches 200,000, having doubled in just over 2 years. -
1992-In France, four health care officials were brought to trial accused of allowing the distribution, between 1980 and 1985, of blood products known to be contaminated with HIV. The lead doctor was given 4 years in jail.
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1993-The ninth International AIDS meeting is held in Berlin Germany. The general feeling of the meeting was one of disappointment. The message that was shared by the people who attended was once again to put more money and efforts to effective prevention of HIV and AIDS.
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1994-AIDS becomes the leading cause of death in Americans ages 25 to 44. The number of AIDS cases in the U.S. doubles again, surpassing 400,000. A National Institute of Health committee decides that a genetically engineered AIDS vaccine called gp120 is not promising enough to warrant large-scale testing.
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1995-The FDA approves the first of a potent new family of anti-AIDS drugs, including the drug saquinavir which belongs to a class of drugs called protease inhibitors.
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1996-The FDA approves a series of drugs called protease inhibitors that, taken alone or in combination with others, prompt a new type of chemical attack on the HIV virus. The multiple-drug treatments make AIDS patients live longer, though they don't rid the body of the disease. The first AIDS hospice in San Francisco closes because fewer people are dying.
The Joint Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS reports that the disease is more widespread than previously thought, estimating 30 million people may be living with HIV/AIDS and that 16,000 new infections are spawned each day. -
1997-For the first time since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981, the number of U.S. deaths from the disease has dropped dramatically.
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1998-The U.S. Supreme Court, in Bragdon v. Abbott, rules 5-4 that HIV-infected people are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Researchers report drug-resistant strains of HIV can be transmitted from person to person. The CDC reports in October that the number of U.S. AIDS deaths fell 45.8 percent in 1997 and that the disease fell out of the top 10 causes of death for the first time since 1990. -
1999 - According to the annual World Health Report, AIDS is the fourth biggest cause of deaths worldwide, only twenty years after the epidemic began
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2000-The Clinton Administration formally declares that HIV/AIDS is a threat to U.S. national security. It is the first time the National Security Council is involved in fighting an infectious disease.
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2001-President George Bush appoints an openly gay man, Scott Evertz, as Director of the Office of National AIDS policy. AIDS was the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
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2002-Swiss researchers report the first fully documented case of an HIV-positive man who was additionally infected with a second strain of HIV through unprotected sex more than two years after he was first infected. For the first time, it is reported that women account for about half of all HIV-infected adults. It is estimated that 40 million people worldwide, including 2.5 million children, are living with HIV/AIDS.
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2003-Swaziland is believed to have the world's highest rate of HIV with almost four out of 10 adults infected with HIV. In his State of the Union address, US president George W. Bush proposes spending $15 billion in combating AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean over the next 5 years.
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2004-The Chinese government announces that it is offering free HIV tests.
The U.S. porn industry is hit by fears of an HIV outbreak among its stars. By May, five actors have been found to be HIV-positive.
SelectedTimelines on the Web
The Gay Men's Health Crisis HIV/AIDS Timeline
New York Times - AIDS Epidemic