We’re now entering the fourth decade of HIV/AIDS awareness. Last
year marked the 30th anniversary of the earliest report (on June
5, 1981) of what is now known as AIDS (acquired immune
deficiency syndrome). In 1983 in France and 1984 in the United
States, Luc Montagnier, MD, and Robert Gallo, MD, respectively,
and their research teams discovered that HIV (the human
immunodeficiency virus) causes AIDS. In 1993, due in part to the
CDC’s broadened definition of AIDS in January of that year,
reports of heterosexual transmission increased. There were also
more reports of HIV transmission through intravenous drug use
(needle sharing). After 1995, with the availability of HAART
(highly active antiretroviral therapy, with protease inhibitors
to block HIV replication), an HIV infection was no longer a
death sentence—provided a person could access treatment (which
now costs $15,000 to $40,000 per year) early and follow a
rigorous multidrug regimen. Today, more than 30 FDA-approved HIV
medications are available. In late