AIDS was first clinically observed betweenA

Discovery

AIDS was first clinically observed between late 1980 and early 1981.^[188] Injection drug users and gay men with no known cause of impaired immunity showed symptoms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), a rare opportunistic infection that was known to present itself in people with very compromised immune systems.^{[189][190][191]} Soon thereafter, additional gay men developed a previously-rare skin cancer called Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS).^[192][193] Many more cases of PCP and KS quickly emerged, alerting U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A CDC task force was formed to monitor the outbreak. After recognizing a pattern of anomalous symptoms presenting themselves in patients, the task force named the condition acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).^[194]

In 1983, two separate research groups led by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier independently declared that a novel retrovirus may have been infecting AIDS patients, and published their findings in the same issue of the journal Science.^[195][196] Gallo claimed that a virus his group had isolated from an AIDS patient was strikingly similar in shape to other human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLVs) his group had been the first to isolate. Gallo's group called their newly isolated virus HTLV-III. At the same time, Montagnier's group isolated a virus from a patient presenting lymphadenopathy (swelling of the lymph nodes) of the neck and physical weakness, two classic symptoms of AIDS. Contradicting the report from Gallo's group, Montagnier and his colleagues showed that core proteins of this virus were immunologically different from those of HTLV-I. Montagnier's group named their isolated virus lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV).^[194] HIV was chosen as a compromise between the two claims (LAV and HTLV-III).

Whether Gallo or Montagnier deserve more credit for the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS has been a matter of considerable controversy. Together with his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Montagnier was awarded one half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his "discovery of human immunodeficiency virus".^[197] Harald zur Hausen also shared the Prize for his discovery that human papilloma virus leads to cervical cancer, but Gallo was left out.^[198] Gallo said that it was "a disappointment" that he was not named a co-recipient.^[199] Montagnier said he was "surprised" Gallo was not recognized by the Nobel Committee: "It was important to prove that HIV was the cause of AIDS, and Gallo had a very important role in that. I'm very sorry for Robert Gallo.