AIDS History (Outside Australia)

1981	The US Centres for Disease Control reports an unusually high number of requests for the drug pentamidine. This is used to treat pneumonia, a rare viral infection. The patients are gay men and drug addicts in the LA area.
1982	A virus tagged the gay plague is also infecting heterosexual drug users and haemophiliacs. The virus is called AIDS.
1983	An American and a French scientist receive credit for discovering the virus that causes AIDS. It is called HIV. The first Australian death from AIDS is reported in Melbourne.
1984	US health minister Margaret Heckler promises a vaccine for AIDS within two years and a cure before the end of the decade.
1985	Rock Hudson dies from AIDS. American teenager, Ryan White, is banned from school. Ryan a haemophiliac, became infected with AIDS through contaminated blood products. AIDS is now in 51 countries.
1986	The World Health Organisation (WHO) meets to discuss the spread of AIDS in drug users. A drug, AZT, originally tested as a cure for cancer, is approved for use against AIDS. US President Ronald Reagan finally says the word "AIDS" in public.
1987	The US Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, sends out a brochure to every American household (107 million in total) talking about how HIV is transmitted. Diana, Princess of Wales, is pictured shaking hands with people with AIDS.
1988	Los Angeles Lakers basketballer Magic Johnson announces his retirement due to HIV infection. A summit is held in London to discuss AIDS.
1989	Another new drug, DDI, becomes available for the treatment of AIDS.
1990	Ryan White dies. Romanian orphanages report large numbers of children with HIV.
1991	The lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury, dies from AIDS. The red ribbon becomes the symbol of AIDS awareness.
1992	Tennis star Arthur Ashe announces he was infected with HIV after a blood transfusion.
1993	Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev dies of AIDS in January. Ashe dies in February.
1994	Actor Tom Hanks wins an Oscar for playing a gay man dying of AIDS in the film Philadelphia.
1995	The joint United Nations program on AIDS (UNAIDS) replaces the WHO global program.
1996	UNAIDS reports a decline of HIV infections in many countries because of safer sex practices.
1997	Work continues on better drugs for the treatment of AIDS. In Melbourne, the Macfarlane Burnet Centre receives a $1 million grant to develop a DNA-based vaccine.
1998	It is reported that 11 men, women and children are infected with HIV every minute.
1999	WHO says the number of new HIV infections this year is 5.6 million.
2000	Former South African President Nelson Mandela addresses the International AIDS conference in South Africa. In a report by Ed Susman, on The Health Network medical WebMD site, Mandela says: "Scientists, governments and communities must end the rhetoric about what causes AIDS and work together to battle the disease that is ravaging the developing world. There is a need for us to be focused, to be strategic and to mobilise all our resources and alliances and to sustain the efforts until the war is won." "We need African resolve to fight this war. Others will not save us if we do not primarily commit ourselves." "Let us not equivocate. A tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa. AIDS is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines and floods."