Here are landmarks in the history of Aids, after France's Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier shared the Nobel Medicine Prize on Monday for their discovery of the HIV virus, along with a German scientist for his groundbreaking research into cervical cancer.

  • 1920s or 1930s (speculated): Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which destroys immune cells in apes, leaps the species barrier to humans after a bush meat hunter in Western-Central Africa is bitten by an infected animal or handles infected meat.

  • 1981: Eight young homosexuals in New York are diagnosed with Kaposi's Sarcoma, a skin cancer that usually occurs in older people, while five Los Angeles gays fall sick with a rare form of pneumonia. These clusters alert US authorities to a new disease that wrecks the immune system and exposes the body to opportunistic disease.

  • 1982: Aids gets its name — acquired immune deficiency syndrome. A 20-month-old child dies from Aids-related infection after a blood transfusion, providing first clear signs that Aids can be transmitted by other than homosexual contact.

  • 1983: A French team including Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi isolates a virus that penetrates white blood cells, causing Aids. The first signs, derived from African men in Europe, emerge that heterosexuals can become infected, unleashing widespread anxiety. Known number of Aids cases (US only) is 3064 by the end of the year.

  • 1984: US scientist Robert Gallo describes a virus that causes Aids but it becomes clear that the agent is the same as the one spotted in France. He and Montagnier share the credit.

    First Aids conference

  • 1985: First commercial tests for the Aids virus help to clear blood banks of contaminated blood. First International Conference on Aids, held in Atlanta, Georgia. Movie actor Rock Hudson becomes first major public figure known to have died of Aids. Aids cases now reported from every region of the world.

  • 1986: Aidspathogen is officially known as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

  • 1987: First anti-HIV drug, azidovudine (AZT) is approved after trials showed it slowed, but did not cure, the progress of the virus.

  • 1990: Death of Ryan White, a young American HIV-infected haemophiliac whose barring from school because of HIV infection unleashed a campaign against Aids prejudice.

  • 1991: Death of Freddy Mercury, lead singer with rock group Queen. US basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces he has HIV.

  • 1994: Studies show AZT can dramatically cut mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

    Introduction of the "cocktail"

  • 1996: Introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the triple "cocktail" of drugs that suppress levels of HIV. United Nations sets up the Joint United Nations Programme on Aids (UNAIDS). Epidemic starts to worsen in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union, India, China.

  • 1998: Hopes that HAART is a cure dashed. Evidence emerges of HIV "reservoirs" where the virus holes up and rebounds if the drugs are stopped.

  • 2000: Southern Africa, where anti-HIV drugs are almost absent because of their cost, becomes the epicentre of what is now a global pandemic. UN states call for spread of HIV/Aids to be halted and thrown into reverse by 2015 as part of Millennium Development Goals.

  • 2002: The Global Fund for Fighting Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria starts to make its first allocations.

  • 2003: US President George Bush unveils plans to spend 15-billion dollars over five years to combat Aids in Africa and Caribbean. First HIV vaccine to undergo a full trial proves to be a flop. New WHO Director General Lee Jong-Wook names AIDS as his top priority, calls for three million poor people to get access to antiretroviral by end of 2005. Cost of antiretroviral plummets, helped by World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal allowing poor, vulnerable countries to import generics.

  • 2006: UN General Assembly sets goal of universal access to HIV/Aids care by 2010.

  • 2008:
    June: Nearly three million people with HIV/Aids in developing countries had access to anti-retroviral drugs by the end of 2007. Another 6.7 million people are still in need.

    July: UNAIDS says more than 25 million people have died of Aids and, as of 2007, 33 million people were infected with HIV. Aids deaths in 2007 numbered two million, although this was the second decline in consecutive years, thanks to anti-HIV drugs.

    October: Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier share the Nobel Medicine Prize for their discovery of the HIV virus.

    AFP

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