HIV was identified in stages. The epidemic was first reported on June 5, 1981, when CDC's MMWR described five previously healthy young gay men in Los Angeles with Pneumocystis pneumonia. Institut Pasteur researchers isolated the virus in 1983, U.S. researchers reported it in 1984, and the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses officially named it HIV on May 1, 1986. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received the 2008 Nobel Prize for the discovery.
June 5, 1981 — the first official report
The recognized starting point is CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of June 5, 1981, titled Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles. It described five young men treated between October 1980 and May 1981 at three Los Angeles hospitals for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, along with other unusual infections such as candidiasis and cytomegalovirus[1]. Two of the five men had already died when the report was published, and the others died soon after. HIV.gov calls this "the first official reporting of what became known as the AIDS epidemic"[2].
The same day, New York dermatologist Dr. Alvin Friedman-Kien reported a cluster of Kaposi's sarcoma cases among gay men in New York and California to CDC. By the end of 1981, 159 cases of Kaposi sarcoma and opportunistic infections had been reported nationally, three-quarters from New York City or California[3].
1983 — isolation at Institut Pasteur
The virus itself was isolated in Paris in early 1983. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, then working in Jean-Claude Chermann's laboratory inside Luc Montagnier's Viral Oncology Unit, was asked by clinicians at Bichat Hospital to look for an unknown retrovirus. A lymph node sample from a patient in the pre-AIDS phase arrived in January 1983; the first tests were run January 12, 1983, and significant reverse transcriptase activity was detected on January 27[4].
On February 4, 1983, the team's electron microscopist Charlie Dauguet photographed retrovirus-like particles, and the team named the new virus Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus (LAV). The work was published in Science on May 20, 1983, reporting a retrovirus that "could be the cause of AIDS"[4].
1984–1986 — the HTLV-III claim and the name "HIV"
On April 23, 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced that Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues had identified the cause of AIDS — a retrovirus they called HTLV-III — along with a diagnostic blood test[2]. NIH's own account states that Gallo, "concurrently with researchers at the Pasteur Institute," showed that HTLV-III — "later renamed the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)" — causes AIDS[5].
The competing claims became a legal dispute: on December 13, 1985, Institut Pasteur sued the U.S. government in the U.S. Court of Claims[2]. On May 1, 1986, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses announced that the virus would officially be known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), replacing both LAV and HTLV-III[2]. President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac ended the dispute on March 31, 1987, announcing shared credit and patent rights.
2008 — the Nobel Prize
On October 6, 2008, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." The other half went to Harald zur Hausen for his work on human papillomaviruses[6].
The prize arrived 25 years after the 1983 Science paper. Dr. Gallo was not included among the 2008 laureates. Institut Pasteur notes the Nobel also recognized the mobilization of patients alongside researchers, a hallmark of the response to HIV from the very beginning[4].
Related questions
What year was HIV discovered?
The virus was isolated in 1983 by researchers at Institut Pasteur in Paris, who first called it LAV; their findings were published in Science on May 20, 1983. U.S. researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the same virus as HTLV-III in 1984.
Who discovered HIV?
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus." NIH describes Robert Gallo as having shown the virus causes AIDS "concurrently with researchers at the Pasteur Institute."
When did the virus get the name HIV?
On May 1, 1986, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses announced that the virus causing AIDS would officially be known as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), replacing the earlier names LAV and HTLV-III.
What was the first official report of AIDS?
CDC's MMWR of June 5, 1981 described Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five previously healthy young men in Los Angeles — the first official report of what became the AIDS epidemic.
Related from RiseUpToHIV
References & Sources
- CDC MMWR — Pneumocystis Pneumonia, Los Angeles (June 5, 1981). The first official report of what became the AIDS epidemic. ↩
- HIV.gov — A Timeline of HIV and AIDS. Federal timeline of the epidemic, including the 1984 HTLV-III announcement, 1985 Pasteur lawsuit, and 1986 ICTV naming. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
- CDC MMWR — AIDS: the Early Years and CDC's Response. Early case totals and the CDC investigation of Belle Glade, Florida. ↩
- Institut Pasteur — 40 years of HIV discovery. Detailed account of the January–May 1983 isolation of LAV. ↩ ↩ ↩
- NIH Intramural Research Program — HTLV-III as the cause of AIDS. NIH's account of the 1984 Gallo lab findings and later renaming to HIV. ↩
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008 — Press release. Official announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize to Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier. ↩
Community publications like POZ, Positively Aware, and TheBody inform framing and lived-experience context on RiseUpToHIV. Every clinical, epidemiological, or public-health claim above is anchored to a primary source.