2023-05-15 16:54:16
The first are over 40 years ago AIDS diseases been found. However, at that time there was neither the name AIDS nor precise knowledge about the cause of the immune deficiency disease. The pathogen, which was later given the name HIV, was discovered in 1983. To date, 40.1 million people have died from AIDS worldwide. Significant advances have also been made in controlling the disease.
AIDS awareness has changed
With the fight against the disease, the way it is dealt with has also changed. “In the 1990s, the topic of AIDS was still very topical, now it has almost disappeared into insignificance,” explains Willi Maier, managing director of the Salzburg Aidshilfe, in an interview with SALZBURG24. However, this should not be viewed negatively. “The overall awareness of sexually transmitted diseases is booming. AIDS is part of that now.” For this reason, the Aidshilfe have adapted their offer and offer a “complete package” of tests. Those for AIDS and syphilis are free, others are relatively cheap. Last year, 1,766 people in Salzburg were tested for sexually transmitted diseases, 769 of which were AIDS tests. People would usually take everything with them when they were tested. That has changed.
HIV infections in Salzburg are increasing
In 2022, 39 tests in the state of Salzburg were positive. “That’s comparatively high and the legacy of Corona,” says Weiss. In 2021 there were 23 positive cases, in 2020 “only” 17. The percentages for Austria correspond to those in Salzburg. “It’s still 39 unnecessary infections, but the number is relatively normal. There is no reason to worry,” Weiss puts into perspective, calling for regular testing.
Test dates at Aidshilfe Salzburg
Die Salzburg Aids Aid offers test appointments for AIDS and STDs every Monday and Thursday (5 to 7 p.m.). No registration is necessary, you can just drop by.
HIV and AIDS – how it all began
We look back at the history of the HIV virus and the disease AIDS in a chronological manner:
1981: First AIDS alert
On June 5, 1981, the US health authority CDC reported a rare form of pneumonia in young homosexuals in California. It is the first official warning of AIDS – but at that time nobody knew that it was a new disease. In late 1981, health officials found the same infections in drug users, in mid-1982 in hemophiliacs receiving blood transfusions and in Haitians immigrating to the United States.
Accordingly, the “4H” disease is first mentioned, which stands for homosexuals, heroin addicts, Haitians and “hemophiles”, i.e. hemophiliacs. The name AIDS was coined in 1982 and is the abbreviation of “acquired immune deficiency syndrome”.
1983: Discovery of the HIV virus
In January 1983, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, researcher Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and her colleague Jean-Claude Chermann, led by Luc Montagnier, isolated a new virus which they call LAV and which they believe “could be involved” in AIDS. Their discovery will be published in the journal Science on May 20th.
On April 23, 1984, the USA announced that the US virologist Robert Gallo had found the “probable” AIDS pathogen, a virus called HTLV-III. LAV and HTLV-III ultimately turn out to be the same pathogen, which in 1986 was given the name Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV for short.
1987: First treatment
On March 20, 1987, the first antiretroviral therapy, zidovudine (AZT), was approved in the USA. It is expensive and causes significant side effects.
On March 31, France and the United States sign an agreement to settle their dispute over the discovery of the HI virus. Gallo and Montagnier are described as “co-discoverers”. However, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery only goes to Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi.
Early 1990s: AIDS spreads widely
US actor Rock Hudson became the first star to die of AIDS in October 1985. It was followed by Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in November 1991 and ballet star Rudolf Nureyev in January 1993. In 1994, AIDS became the leading cause of death among people in the USA between the ages of 25 and 44.
1995-96: Beginning of combination therapies
In 1995 and 1996, the introduction of two types of drugs marked a turning point in AIDS therapy: protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs). This is the beginning of combination antiretroviral therapies, which are proving very effective against HIV. In 1996 the number of AIDS victims in the USA fell for the first time. Today, an HIV-infected person who starts antiretroviral therapy early has a life expectancy similar to that of the rest of the population.
2001: Generics
After the signing of an agreement between the United Nations AIDS program (UNAIDS) and five pharmaceutical giants in 2000 to distribute affordable AIDS drugs in poor countries, a compromise is reached in the World Trade Organization (WTO) the following year. Developing countries are now allowed to produce inexpensive imitation products of AIDS drugs, so-called generics.
2010: “Berliner Patient”
American-born Timothy Brown is cured of HIV after receiving a bone marrow transplant from a person genetically immune to HIV because of leukemia. The case of the so-called Berlin patient was followed by further healings of this kind, but it was initially not possible to develop regular HIV therapy as a result.
Conspiracy theories surrounding the HIV virus
But even after the AIDS pathogen had long been proven, conspiracy theories persisted: the Soviet secret service tried in its “Infection” operation to make people believe that the pathogen had been developed in a secret laboratory in the USA. And the South African President at the time, Thabo Mbeki, was still claiming at the beginning of the millennium that poverty, not HIV, was the cause of AIDS and denied the population access to medicines.
2012: First preventive treatment
On July 16, 2012, the first preventive treatment against HIV will be approved in the USA. The administration of an antiretroviral drug cocktail in the form of a tablet has been established as an effective form of prevention for people with a high risk of HIV infection.
2017: Therapy for a good 50 percent of those infected
In 2017, for the first time, more than half of the carriers of the HI virus received antiretroviral treatment. To date, according to UN figures, the proportion has risen to around three quarters: according to UN estimates, 28.7 million of 38.4 million infected people worldwide received suitable therapy in 2021.
2020/21: Effects of the corona pandemic
Due to the global spread of the coronavirus and the restrictions imposed as a result, the number of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths in 2021 will exceed the UNAIDS targets. Nevertheless, the UN organization is sticking to its goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
(Source: APA/SALZBURG24)
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