Talk:Timeline of HIV/AIDS

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ryanderson3.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:24, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

reconcile with CDC timeline of first documented aids cases in the United States
This article incorrectly claims an AIDS case occurred in the U.S. in 1959. However, the first AIDS cases in the U.S. occurred in 1981.CDC

Worobey's theories cited below are just that theories. They are not factual.
The Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad Responds to Worobey's theory, November 7, 2007.

reconcile with timeline of early aids cases
This article claims aids crossed into humans in the 1930s, but the article on early aids cases claims that it crossed around 1908. Here's their cite:

2008, Australian law re: immigration
From what I can tell from http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/22health.htm there is no law preventing an individual with HIV from entering Australia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.209.95.194 (talk) 08:03, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

First AIDS death in New York
There is contradicting information regarding the first death from AIDS in new york. The first entry under 1981 and the last entry under 1980 are both regarding the first death, but offer different points of view. Note: no source is given for the 1980 entry —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.193.230.26 (talk) 14:36, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Just wanted to second this, has this seriously not been fixed in the past six years? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:9:3500:10F6:380F:E305:7303:D994 (talk) 04:53, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Celebrity AIDS deaths
I have removed the celebrity AIDS deaths. They may be more relvant at List of HIV-positive individuals Sci guy 16:04, 23 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I added Rock Hudson, as his death had significant political and cultural implications. Uucp 20:39, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

In the list the discovery of the HIV virus by the Americans is mentioned. But didn't the French discovered the virus before, in 1983??
 * I have added it. Uucp 20:39, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Arthur Ashe
If Magic Johnson is mentioned, would it not make sense to mention Arthur Ashe as well. He also (in the words of his wikipedia article) "did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide". I'm not insisting he is mentioned, just pointing out the situation. LINK3 (talk) 01:40, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Definitely. -- Banj e  b oi   05:05, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

AIDS wins?
I agree that AIDS is more widely used and recognised than Aids and is consistent with SARS, PCP, CMV, etc. CDC uses HIV/AIDS as does WHO and UNAIDS. I also note that acquired immune deficiency syndrome and human immunodeficiency virus do not usually have capitals. CD4 cell count appears to be the standard.

Further discusison is welcome. Sci guy 16:00, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Four comments

 * "New guidelines from the World Health Organization and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defer antiretroviral medications for a person with no symptoms who has a CD4 cell count above 350 and viral load under 100,000". Two problems with this. Firstly, the WHO guidelines were published in 2002, not 2004 (take a look at the report). Secondly, it appears that the DHHS criteria for treatment in the 2004 guidelines were the same as in the previous guidelines, as demonstrated by the quotation given for September 2002.


 * ACT-UP Golden Gate is an insignificant organization that doesn't merit any mention in this timeline, let alone the three mentions added by Voyager640.


 * "There is no recognized standard for establishing the presence or absence of HIV-1 antibody in human blood." This is not an historical event.


 * The "Treatment Guidelines 2005" section (added by Sci guy) is irrelevant.

Trezatium 11:24, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Misleading presentation of 2 cases
1. The presentation of the "1958 25-year-old printer from England named David Carr" case is misleading - any reader skimming will assume wrongly that he was the first AIDS death. The MISTAKE warning needs to be at the start of the case.

2. Does the current presentation, of the "1959/New York City, a 49-year-old American shipping clerk" case, sufficiently alert the reader to the unproven nature of this case.

Hooper in 1999 describes the case, "the pathologist, Gordon Hennigar, was mystified as to why he could find no underlying disease that might explain why the Pneumocystis infection had taken hold and proved so remorseless. The case was sufficiently unusual to be written up in two medical journals, and although one of the papers pointed out that the white blood cell count had sometimes been high (which might suggest a leukemoid reaction), its conclusion was that Ardouin represented "the first reported instance of unassociated [Pneumocystis carinii] disease in an adult." Dr. Hennigar, meanwhile, decided to pickle Ardouin's lungs for posterity." http://www.ofspirit.com/tw-theriver.htm

Have the preserved tissues been tested for HIV since? The sources we cite was written some 21 years ago. Hooper wrote 9 years ago. Potentially the first AIDS death in the USA and no medical/science/epidemiological article can be found to cite - seems unlikely. For the English printer we state "The source reference for this item has been removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website." This implies that the, "1959/New York City, a 49-year-old American shipping clerk" case is accepted by CDC. Is this the case? Anyone got online journal access? 124.169.141.63 (talk) 15:29, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Ardouin Antonio's lungs remain pickled and await a test for his lungs. Every year I try to make this happen. I will try to encourage this test again this week. He remains a highly suspected case. Daviddaniel37 (talk 13:20, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Merge timelines
Timeline of early AIDS cases seems to be a sub-set of this article (Timeline_of_AIDS)that could be best merged into this article. Comments? 124.169.22.60 (talk) 02:45, 12 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Opposed I think they are better in this article. Some notable touchstones could be added to the timeline article if it is added in context of 1. the incident and 2. how it is viewed in the larger context. Like many pandemics the earliest cases ar sometimes discovered years and even decades later. In context this information works better here but some cases may fit thre as well. -- Banj e  b oi   21:41, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Support a merge into this article or into Origin of AIDS. I actually prefer the latter, as most of the information in the Timeline of early AIDS cases is redundant with that section, and the article is pretty flimsy on its own. Fences and windows (talk) 18:08, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Opposed I agree with Benjiboi. 38.109.88.196 (talk) 06:18, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

removed
Death data on 949 hemophiliacs from the United States for the years 1968-1979 have been analyzed.There was no evidence of new diseases caused by the more intensive therapy during this time interval. The leading infectious disease was hepatitis, accounting for eight deaths. Only one acute hepatitis death was listed after 1974, when sensitive tests for hepatitis B antigen screening of plasma were implemented. Cirrhosis was a primary or associated cause of death in 76 cases (8%) and pneumonia was a primary or associated cause of death in 62 deaths (6.5%). The types of malignancies in hemophiliacs were similar to those in the male US population with no evidence of excessive retrovirus malignancies prior to infection with HIV-1.

I've removed the above as being rather convoluted. We aren't a medical journal and as such we should try to be clear on what we are presenting. Is this saying something? I'm not sure what but we should clarify so it's clear to all. -- Banj e b oi   11:49, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

leading cause of death for males 22-44?
I removed this entry for 1992:

"In the US, AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for 24 to 44 year old men"

This is a direct quote from this new scientist timeline. The concept of a "leading cause of death" is pretty arbitrary (you can juggle categories to get any value you want) but given sites like and CDC's health data interactive (gopheresque and hard to link, start here ), it's clearly not even close today.

I'm having trouble finding data for 1992 online, if it turns out it was true at some peak in AIDS deaths it's very misleading to include without indicating that it went back down shortly after.

BCoates (talk) 06:33, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Arvid Noe
I have always found the sourcing of the case of Arvid Noe to be rather thin. The article about Noe himself includes only cites for Hooper and one cite for a source that I would deem to be reputable, The Lancet medical journal. What makes the Noe case even less credible is that its article mentions an allegedly famous German violinist by name who is apparently not widely known beyond his association with Noe. I bring this up here because I'm looking for thoughts and opinions on the relevance and credibility of references to Noe's case and this article is followed by a bit larger group than the Noe article itself. Should it stay in the timeline? --Sephiroth9611 (talk) 17:08, 2 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Hooper references a 1997 article in Virology about Noe, as well as the Lancet piece about the violinist that you mention. He is discussed at very great length in the Hooper article, and Hooper included him again in his 2005 catalog of important figures in the history of the disease at http://www.aidsorigins.com/content/view/24/31/#N.  Noe is mentioned again in a letter to Nature from 1998 (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v391/n6667/full/391594a0.html). Do you think Noe may be fictional? The evidence seems adequate to me that he is what Hooper described him to be. Uucp (talk) 23:30, 2 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I will take your word for it if you deem Hooper's account of Noe to be credible. I know about Hooper only through reading about him here at Wikipedia, so I'll refrain from making further judgments about his reputation.  My only goal was asking for a reevaluation of the subject, which you've provided, so I'm satisfied.  Thanks.  --Sephiroth9611 (talk) 16:35, 5 November 2009 (UTC)


 * The Lancet is a top publication, and David Ho was one of the co-authors of the 1998 letter. Noe's story seems legitimate to me. Uucp (talk) 15:32, 6 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Lancet is highly reputable...and the story of Arvid Noe is well-reported in AIDS history. 38.109.88.196 (talk) 06:26, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Move. Jafeluv (talk) 08:04, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

– Maybe I'm a little ignorant about this subject but shouldn't these use the same convention as HIV/AIDS and other articles? Marcus Qwertyus (talk) 09:15, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Timeline of AIDS → Timeline of HIV/AIDS
 * Timeline of early AIDS cases → Timeline of early HIV/AIDS cases
 * Index of AIDS-related articles → Index of HIV/AIDS-related articles
 * Support; subarticles should match the naming conventions of their parent articles. Powers T 23:02, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Support. --George Ho (talk) 22:00, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Actual facts
In actuality, Robert Rayford was preceded in death by his grandfather who died of similar symptoms in 1966 and they did not test his blood or tissue. Similarly, Arvid Noe is reported as the first confirmed AIDS death outside the U.S., when he was actually preceded in death by his seven-year-old daughter by a year-and-a-half. It should read, seven year-old daughter of Norwegian sailor/truck-driver died January 4, 1975. Born with it, we know that her mother had it before 1967.

1980 AIDS cases unsubstantiated
http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/aids-timeline/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.60.98.146 (talk) 20:55, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

CDC links
Links are broken. Documents can be found here:

etc. 81.173.147.127 (talk) 10:25, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Timeline of HIV/AIDS. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080709082250/http://www.cbc.ca:80/news/background/aids/index.html to http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aids/index.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071009183831/http://www.spiral.com:80/infoshare/Article1.html to http://www.spiral.com/infoshare/Article1.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 06:57, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Image of Gallo
I removed the image of Robert Gallo from the 1990s section. The accompanying text describes how Science referred to Gallo's research on chemokines as an important breakthrough. By 2016, this had not become recognized as a treatment for HIV. I suppose Gallo is qualified to have his picture on the timeline as the co-discoverer of HIV. My evaluation of his research is probably biased by And the Band Played On, but I have certain reservations about his work, and the image is no more relevant or necessary than any other image that could be placed in that section. If there is to be one image per decade, Ryan White is a better choice. Roches (talk) 03:57, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

2016
I added the year 2016 and just wrote about how the HIV virus is becoming resistant to drugs(Yasmejia (talk) 23:07, 26 October 2017 (UTC)) A Timeline of HIV and AIDS. (2017, October 04). Retrieved November 03, 2017, from https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline

Review
The article seems to have a neutral tone. It talks about other minor topics but those topics are usually illustrations of how they are connected to HIV/AIDS. For example in 1900, the article talks about Ryan White dying from Pneumonia but this disease was found to be related to AIDS. The article bears more weight on some sub-topics. For instance, there seem to be more information in years like 1959, 1979 and 1980 whiles years like 1920, 1960 and 1964 have little information. The article’s subtopics started from 1900 to 1920 and then to 1959, and so on. There were wide gaps between the years. Does that mean there was no AIDS epidemic within the years that are not discussed? --Wina45 (talk) 17:07, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Operation Infektion
Should material about Operation Infektion be added to the page?121.216.112.252 (talk) 11:19, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

1979 hemophiliac
mentions that a case of infection to a hemophiliac can be said to have happened in June 1979 - is this the earliest known? should it be added

Black Children & AIDS, dr.james oleske
Someone should write an article about Dr. James Oleske, the USA pediatrician of Newark, NJ, who discovered that children can get AIDS (see the documentary " Don Quixote Of Newark" for a start @ info) ... c. louis mcguirebutts, jr. 08:31, 24 June 2022 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drbambam (talk • contribs)

1970s New York cases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_HIV/AIDS#Homeless_people_and_intravenous_drug_users_in_New_York suggests that the New York outbreak started in the mid 70s with homeless and injecting drug users. This seems to be missing here. INSTEAD it seems to repeat the CDC claims of a 1981 start in New York in gay male populations. 91.154.169.156 (talk) 19:35, 2 October 2023 (UTC)