TIMELINE: Key events in the history of HIV

A report released by WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on Aids (UNAIDS) in November 1999 estimates the number of people infected with HIV since it first appeared at 50 million, 16 million of whom died. Africa was the hardest-hit continent, with 12.2 million cases. PHOTO| AFP

What you need to know:

  • Aids claimed a million lives in 2016, almost half the 2005 toll that marked the peak of the deadly epidemic, according to a UN report proclaiming “the scales have tipped.
  • A study of gay couples in which one partner had HIV, showed that infected men who achieve virus suppression with ART also protected their uninfected partners.
  • A two-year study of 96 girls aged 15 to 17 in the United States showed that a vaginal ring treated with the ARV drug dapivirine, was safe and easy to wear.

1981

First alert 

On June 5, 1981, US epidemiologists report the first deaths among young homosexuals from a mysterious immune-wrecking disease later named acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Aids).

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) later identifies the same infections among injected drug users (late 1981), haemophiliacs (mid 1982) and Haitian residents in the US (mid 1982).

The term Aids appears in 1982.

1983

Identifying HIV

In January 1983, researchers in France, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Jean-Claude Chermann under the direction of Luc Montagnier, identify the virus that “might be” responsible for Aids.

It is dubbed LAV.

The next year, US specialist Robert Gallo is said to have found the “probable” cause of Aids, a retrovirus dubbed HTLV-III.

The two viruses turn out to be one and the same, and in May 1986 it becomes officially known as the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

1987

AZT 

On March 20, 1987, the first anti-retroviral treatment known as AZT is authorised in the US.

It is expensive and has many side effects.

1988

First Aids day

December 1, 1988 is established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the first World Aids Day.

In June 1989 the number of Aids cases worldwide is estimated at more than 150,000.

Early 90s

Falling stars

 US actor Rock Hudson is the first high-profile Aids victim in October 1985.

 In the early 1990s other stars succumb to the disease, notably British singer Freddie Mercury in November 1991 and Russian dancer-choreographer Rudolf Nureyev in January 1993.

The next year, Aids becomes the leading cause of death among US citizens aged 24-44.

1995/1996

New approach 

In 1995/96, a new approach begins with the advent of new anti-retroviral therapies, and drug combinations that provide the first effective treatment for HIV although they are not a cure.

In the US, 1996 is the first year during which the number of Aids deaths declines.

1999

50 million

A report released by WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on Aids (UNAIDS) in November 1999 estimates the number of people infected with HIV since it first appeared at 50 million, of whom 16 million died.

Africa is the hardest-hit continent, with 12.2 million cases.

2001

Generic treatments

Following an accord signed in 2000 by UNAIDS and major pharmaceutical firms to make treatment affordable in poor countries, the World Trade Organisation hosts the signing of a compromise on November 13, 2001 that allows developing countries to produce generic treatments.

2008

Nobel Prize

On October 6, 2008, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus.”

2012

Preventive treatment 

On July 16, 2012, the anti-retroviral treatment Truvada is approved for use in the US to help ward off HIV.

A far cry from the 1990s “ABC” campaign promoting abstinence and monogamy as HIV protection, last week, scientists reported on new approaches allowing people to have all the safe sex they want. Moving away from the message to “Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise”, modern prevention strategies include drug-doused vaginal rings, male circumcision, and taking anti-retroviral therapy (ART) medication, experts said at a HIV science conference in Paris.

Thirty-five years of research has yet to yield a cure or vaccine for the virus which has infected more than 76 million people since the early 1980s, and killed 35 million. This means that prevention remains “absolutely critical,” according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Maryland, who attended the International AIDS Society conference.

There are 19.5 million people on ART today, with another 17.1 million who need it. “Each year we add about two million to that group,” Fauci told AFP. “We must decrease the number of new infections.”

 

SOME RECENT ADVANCES:

Circumcision: According to the World Health Organisation, there is “compelling evidence” that male circumcision reduces the risk of sexual HIV infection in heterosexual men. It also protects their female partners. In a study with nearly 10,000 people in South Africa, women who reported that their most recent male sexual partner was circumcised were 22 per cent less likely to have HIV and 15 per cent less likely to have genital herpes than women whose last partner was not. The reason is not clear. Is it simply that fewer men are being infected and infecting others in turn, or does circumcision actively prevent HIV-positive men from passing on the virus?  Research will continue, said Ayesha Kharsany of the CAPRISA research centre in South Africa.

“What is certain, however, is that having a circumcised partner can provide women with partial protection against HIV,” she told journalists in Paris.

Some 12 million men have been medically circumcised in sub-Saharan Africa to date in an effort to stop the spread of HIV, Kharsany said.

Opposites attract: A study of gay couples in which one partner had HIV, showed that infected men who achieve virus suppression with ART also protected their uninfected partners.

“There were no, zero, HIV transmissions within these couples,” said Andrew Grulich of the University of New South Wales in Australia, who took part in the study entitled “Opposites Attract”. Grulich and a team followed 330 couples for about 1.5 years, during which time the participants reported 17,000 acts of condomless, anal sex. The lack of HIV spread was despite high rates of other sexually-transmissible infections, the team found.

“We think these findings really strongly support the hypothesis that condomless sex, when the viral load is undetectable, is a form of safe sex,” said Grulich.

Vaginal ring: A two-year study of 96 girls aged 15 to 17 in the United States showed that a vaginal ring treated with the ARV drug dapivirine, was safe and easy to wear. The ring is worn constantly, and replaced monthly. In previous research involving adult women, the ring reduced the risk of acquiring HIV by about 30 per cent, according to the research team. Further study is needed to test whether it also protected girls.

“HIV doesn’t distinguish between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old,” said Sharon Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“Young women of all ages deserve to be protected.”

Teenage girls and young women aged 15-24 accounted for a fifth of new HIV infections among adults in 2015 — rising to one in four in sub-Saharan Africa where 1,000 are infected daily, according to the study authors.

Injectable shield: A long-acting, injectable dose of the virus-suppressing drug cabotegravir, given every two months, was well tolerated in trial participants, according to early results. Cabotegravir is being probed as an alternative to oral ARV as prevention — also known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP. Forgetting to take a pill can expose one to infection, and is a major complaint of PrEP users. Further trials are in the pipeline to test the drug’s virus-suppressing efficacy, said Raphael Landovitz, an infectious diseases expert from the University of California.

Less frequent sex: A drug cocktail that has been shown to protect uninfected gay men who engaged in frequent and “high-risk” sexual behaviour, also shields those who are less active and hence take fewer tablets, another study showed. The IPERGAY trial is testing the efficacy of the drug cocktail Truvada taken as prevention before and after sex. No infections were reported among men on PrEP who had sex about five times a month, researchers found. The team had previously measured a near 90 per cent drop in infection risk for Truvada-users who had sex on average twice as often.