Photo: Courtesy
Rock Hudson
ACT UP
AIDS Memorial Quilt
Rudolf Nureyev
Combivir
ACT against AIDS
June 5, 1981: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes a report describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, in five young, previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. This marks the first official reporting of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic.
July 3, 1981: The New York Times reports on cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma affecting 41 gay men in New York and California.
Dec. 31, 1981: A cumulative total of 270 reported cases of severe immune deficiency among gay men is reported, and 121 of those individuals have died.
January 1982: The first U.S. HIV/AIDS clinic is established in San Francisco, followed by the establishment of the first East Coast clinic in New York City.
April 13, 1982: U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman convenes the first congressional hearings on HIV/AIDS. The CDC estimates that tens of thousands of people may be affected by the disease.
Sept. 24, 1982: The CDC uses the term “AIDS” – acquired immune deficiency syndrome – for the first time and releases the first case definition of AIDS: “a disease at least moderately predictive of a defect in cell-mediated immunity, occurring in a person with no known cause for diminished resistance to that disease.”
February 1983: Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute suggests that a retrovirus probably causes AIDS.
April 23, 1983: Gallo and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute find the cause of AIDS, the retrovirus HTLV-III. The secretary of health and human services announces the development of a diagnostic blood test to identify HTLV-III and expresses hope that a vaccine against AIDS will be produced within two years.
May 1983: Congress passes the first bill that includes funding specifically for AIDS research and treatment – $12 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
July 25, 1983: San Francisco General Hospital opens the first dedicated AIDS ward in the country. It is fully occupied within days.
Sept. 9, 1983: The CDC identifies all major routes of HIV transmission – and rules out transmission by casual contact, food, water, air, or environmental surfaces.
October 1983: San Francisco officials order bathhouses closed due to high-risk sexual activity occurring in these venues. New York and Los Angeles follow suit.
Oct. 2, 1985: Actor Rock Hudson dies of AIDS-related illness. He leaves $250,000 to help set up the American Foundation for AIDS Research, with Elizabeth Taylor as the founding national chair.
1986: San Francisco AIDS activist Cleve Jones creates the first panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Sept. 17, 1986: President Ronald Reagan mentions AIDS publicly for the first time, vowing in a letter to Congress to make AIDS a priority.
Oct. 22, 1986: U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issues the Surgeon General’s Report on AIDS. The report urges parents and schools to start frank, open discussions about AIDS and urges education and condom use.
March 19, 1987: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the first antiretroviral drug, zidovudine or AZT.
March 1987: Playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer founds the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power or ACT UP in New York City.
July 1987: U.S. Congress adopts the Helms Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for AIDS education materials that “promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities.”
October 1987: The AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The display features 1,920 3’ x 6’ panels.
Oct. 11, 1988: ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) protests at FDA headquarters about the drug-approval process. Eight days later, the FDA announces new regulations to speed up drug approvals.
1989: The number of reported AIDS cases in the United States reaches 100,000.
Feb. 16, 1990: Pop artist Keith Haring dies of AIDS-related illness.
April 8, 1990: Ryan White dies of AIDS-related illness at the age of 18.
August 1990: Congress enacts the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990, which provides $220.5 million in federal funds for HIV community-based care and treatment services in its first year.
1991: The Visual AIDS Artists Caucus launches the Red Ribbon Project to create a visual symbol to demonstrate compassion for people living with AIDS.
1992: AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for U.S. men ages 25 to 44.
1993: President Bill Clinton establishes the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
Jan. 6, 1993: Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev dies of AIDS-related illness. A month later, tennis star Arthur Ashe dies.
1994: AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44.
Dec. 23, 1994: The FDA approves an oral HIV test, the first non-blood-based antibody test for HIV.
June 1995: The FDA approves the first protease inhibitor. This ushers in a new era of highly active antiretroviral therapy.
1996: The number of new AIDS cases diagnosed in the U.S. declines for the first time since the beginning of the epidemic.
October 1996: The Quilt is displayed in its entirety for the last time. It covers the entire National Mall in Washington, D.C.
1997: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the first substantial decline in AIDS deaths in the United States.
Sept. 26, 1997: The FDA approves Combivir, a combination of two antiretroviral drugs in one tablet.
October 1998: Clinton declares AIDS to be a “severe and ongoing health crisis” in African-American and Hispanic communities in the United States.
1999: The World Health Organization announces that HIV/AIDS has become the fourth biggest killer worldwide and the No. 1 killer in Africa. WHO estimates that 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide and that 14 million have died of AIDS.
Jan. 27, 2000: Clinton announces the launch of the Millennium Vaccine Initiative to create incentives for developing and distributing vaccines against HIV, TB and malaria.
October 2000: Congress re- authorizes the Ryan White CARE Act for the second time.
2001: The CDC announces a new HIV Prevention Strategic Plan to cut annual HIV infections in the U.S. by half within five years.
2002: Worldwide, 10 million young people, aged 15-24, and almost 3 million children under 15, are living with HIV.
2003: The CDC calculates that 27,000 of the estimated 40,000 new infections that occur each year in the United States result from transmission by individuals who do not know they are infected.
June 10, 2004: Leaders of the “Group of Eight” Summit call for the creation of a consortium of government and private-sector groups designed to coordinate and accelerate research efforts to find an effective HIV vaccine.
Sept. 22, 2006: The CDC releases revised HIV testing recommendations that call for routine HIV screening for all adults, aged 13-64, and yearly screening for those at high risk.
2007: The CDC reports that more than 565,000 people have died of AIDS in the U.S. since 1981.
Aug. 6, 2008: The CDC releases new domestic HIV incidence estimates that are substantially higher than previous estimates – 56,300 new infections per year vs. 40,000.
April 7, 2009: The Obama administration launches the Act Against AIDS campaign, a multiyear, multifaceted communication campaign designed to reduce HIV incidence in the United States.
Jan. 4, 2010: The U.S. Government officially lifts the HIV travel and immigration ban enacted by President George H.W. Bush.
2011: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launches the 12 Cities Project to support comprehensive HIV/AIDS planning and cross-agency response in the 12 U.S. jurisdictions that bear the highest AIDS burden in the country.
Sources: CDC, FDA, NIH, USAID, Kaiser Family Foundation
