HIV/AIDS emerged in the 1980s, eventually causing the deaths of over 42 million people worldwide. Since then, breakthroughs in virology enable over 88 million people infected with HIV to live healthy and normal lives today. This is the medical history of AIDS, bridging the gap from death sentence to current day treatment.  

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (or HIV), spreads through infected fluids (such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, and breast milk) weakening a person’s immune system over time and stripping its ability to fight off infections. Eventually, the immune system becomes so compromised that everyday illnesses lead to severe complications, marking the progression to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).  

Although first identified in humans in the 80s, retrospective analysis suggests that the virus likely jumped from west-central African chimpanzees to humans in the early 1900s, likely due to the butchering and consumption of bush meat. 

First noted in June of 1981, reports emerged of a new disease affecting healthy, young homosexual men which caused rare forms of pneumonia and infection-related cancers. A case report in 1982 suggested that the disease was sexually transmitted, and it was officially termed “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome” that same year.  

In 1983, French virologists isolated HIV and determined that it was a retrovirus – a class of virus that permanently incorporated its genetic material into healthy cells to force them to create more copies of itself. This discovery led to the development of the ELISA screening test, enabling health officials to identify contaminated blood samples. The test became commercially available worldwide, helping together data and limit the spread of the virus.  In the same year, researchers from the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund identified the first antiretroviral drug, inhibiting HIV replication and preventing progression to AIDS. This drug, known as AZT, became the first drug approved by the U.S  to treat patients with HIV.  

Globally, early responses were slow. In the U.S, it was only after Hollywood star Rock Hudson passed away from AIDS in 1985 that President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged the epidemic, beginning centralised efforts to research and combat the virus. By this time at least 5,000 people had died. Prior attempts to bring the issue to the administration’s attention were repeatedly met with mockery. In the U.K, the Terrence Higgins Trust, founded in 1983 after Terrence Higgins’ death, raised funds, offered support, and promoted drug and sex education in a hostile social climate. 

Because HIV had disproportionately affected the LGBTQ+ community and intravenous drug users, HIV infection was seen as a personal moral failure. It was labelled as a “gay plague” that spared the “general population”, even though it could affect anyone. These attitudes delayed funding, research, and access to healthcare, worsening the crisis.  

Over the next decade, more antiretroviral drugs were developed, leading to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996. HAART combined antiretroviral drugs to suppress HIV levels in an infected person to protect their immune system and prevent transmission. In 2012, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was officially approved by the U.S FDA to prevent people at high risk of HIV from acquiring the infection. Now, HIV rarely progresses to AIDS at all.  

Thanks to developments like HAART and PrEP, HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, but the fight to end this disease goes on. The fight against HIV/AIDS is not just about medicine—it is about challenging stigma, ensuring equal access to healthcare, and remembering the millions lost. With research, advocacy, and global cooperation, perhaps a future without HIV/AIDS is in sight.