Untreated HIV eventually leads to AIDS

Untreated HIV eventually leads to AIDS. The first cluster of AIDS cases were reported in New York and San Francisco in 1981. Doctors noticed that gay men were becoming ill with a rare form of pneumonia (PCP) and a cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma.

Researchers worked out that these men had an underlying infection, and that it was likely to be sexually transmitted and blood-borne.

Further cases of AIDS were soon reported in gay men in other countries, including the UK. But it quickly became apparent that AIDS was affecting other groups as well.

In 1985, the virus that is now known as HIV was identified.

Even before HIV was discovered, safer sex and safer drug use had become established ways of reducing the risk of the illness.

As the virus spread around the world and deaths mounted, research went into finding a cure or vaccine. The first drug found to have an effect against HIV was AZT.

Other drugs were developed, but it became clear that treatment with one drug alone did not work well in the long term.

Treatment with two anti-HIV drugs was shown to have more benefit, but the real breakthrough came with development of new anti-HIV drugs that worked against the virus in a number of different ways.

In 1996, triple-drug HIV treatment was introduced. This treatment was able to reduce the amount of virus in the blood and allow the immune system to strengthen. Thanks to this treatment, the number of AIDS deaths fell dramatically in countries where treatment was widely available.

However, HIV was spreading rapidly in some of the world’s poorest countries, especially in southern Africa, and wider access to HIV treatment in these countries is only now starting to become a reality.

The early HIV treatment combinations were difficult to take and many caused unpleasant and long-term side-effects.

More powerful, easier-to-take and safer drugs gradually became available. Thanks to these, and other improvements in HIV care, doctors have become increasingly hopeful that many people with HIV will be able to live a near-normal lifespan.

Nevertheless, HIV continues to spread. The infection is spreading rapidly in Eastern Europe, China, India and south-east Asia.

HIV is now firmly established as one of the leading health concerns of the 21^st century, and one of the most significant causes of illness and death in human history.