The AIDS epidemic likely began when a virus affecting apes crossed into humans, probably through a bushmeat hunter in Western-Central Africa, sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. By the late 1970s, unusual illnesses were appearing among gay men in the United States and Sweden, and by 1981 American health authorities recognized a pattern: a condition that dismantled the immune system and left patients vulnerable to rare cancers and infections.
French researchers at the Pasteur Institute identified the responsible virus in 1983, and it was officially named HIV in 1986. The first approved treatment, AZT, arrived in 1987, slowing the virus without curing it. A major breakthrough came in 1995, when combining protease inhibitors with other drug classes reduced viral levels to near-undetectable amounts, though hopes for a cure faded as drug resistance and hidden viral reservoirs emerged.
The epidemic's center of gravity shifted to sub-Saharan Africa through the 1990s and 2000s. Activism from generic drug manufacturers and international trade agreements helped reduce medication costs for poorer nations. The United States pledged 15 billion dollars over five years for Africa and the Caribbean in 2003.
By late 2004, UN agencies estimated that 3.1 million people had died that year alone, nearly 5 million new infections had occurred, and roughly 39.4 million people worldwide were living with HIV or AIDS.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in November 2004, in its own words.