HIV was discovered in 1981, though retrospective studies have discovered cases in Africa as early at the 1930s. In 1981, 26 cases of Kaposi's sarcoma were found in male patients in the US, all of whom identified as homosexual. These cases were centered around San Francisco and New York. Previously, Kaposi's sarcoma had only infected elderly men of Jewish or Mediterranean ancestry. In addition, this new version was much more aggressive than had previously been seen, leading doctors to seek a link between these new cases.
Photo Credit: http://www.meddean.luc.edu/
Above is a normal case of Kaposi's sarcoma. Below is an advanced case in a HIV positive patient.
Photo Credit: wikipedia.com
Within the same population that were getting these infections, other diseases that were normally only associated with immunocompromised patients were occurring, most notable non-Hodgkins lymphoma Pneumocystis pneumonia, which do not normally infect healthy people. Since the doctors did not know what to look for, or how to look for it, they did not know what was causing these infections.
The virus was isolated in 1983 and 1984 by two people, both using the same strain of virus. No other infectious agent has been isolated in such a short time. Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo, a French scientist and an American scientist respectively, were the two discoverers of the virus.
Never before had an infection been found that so completely destroyed the hosts immune system. The hidden nature of the virus, as well as its rapid evolution time, are both key factors working against the discovery of a cure.
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