🔬 Discovery

HIV as the cause of AIDS

VIH como causa del sida

Date: 1983-1984 · confidence high
Place: Pasteur Institute, Paris, France
Credited to: Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi; Robert Gallo (NCI, Bethesda)
People: 👤 Françoise Barré-Sinoussi1947–👤 Luc Montagnier1932–2022 👤 Robert Gallo1937–
Field: Life & health

⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.

What was discovered

Isolation of a retrovirus (LAV/HTLV-III) from patients' lymph nodes and demonstration that it causes acquired immunodeficiency. It enabled blood testing and the development of antiretrovirals.

The Gallo-Montagnier priority dispute over the origin of the samples was settled between the United States and France in 1987; the 2008 Nobel Prize went to Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi.

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What it led to

screening tests and safe transfusions
combination antiretroviral therapy (1996), which turned AIDS into a chronic disease
patient activism and changes in drug regulation
PrEP and prevention

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Built on

retroviruses and reverse transcriptase (1970)
Gallo's HTLV-I

Made possible

📄 Original publication

Isolation of a T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus from a Patient at Risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)Françoise Barré‐Sinoussi, Jean‐Claude Chermann, FA Rey, M.T. Nugeyre et al. · Science · 1983