Timeline of early HIV/AIDS cases

Last updated

HIV/AIDS was recognised as a novel illness in the early 1980s. An AIDS case is classified as "early" if the death occurred before 5 June 1981, when the AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in the United States. [1] [2]

Contents

Virus origins

All known subgroups of HIV-1 and HIV-2 are thought to have entered humans as distinct cross-species transmissions of Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) from primates. [3] [4]

SIV exists as distinct lineages that cluster in different species of primates. [3] HIV-1 is most similar to the SIV found in common chimpanzees (SIVcpz) in southeastern Cameroon, giving rise to the notion that HIV-1 emerged from chimpanzees in this area. [4] SIVcpz itself emerged in chimpanzees as the result of a recombination of two separate lineages of SIV known to infect red-capped mangabey, and Cercopithecus species. [3] [5]

Early 20th century

HIV-1 group M (responsible for the global pandemic) is estimated to have emerged in humans around 1920 near Kinshasa, then part of the Belgian Congo. This estimation was the result of time-scaled evolutionary models being applied to modern samples and retrieved early samples of HIV-1 (M). [6] [7] It had previously been estimated from the genetic differences between LEO70 and DRC60 samples and later samples that HIV-1 group M had jumped into humans in 1908 ± 10 years. [8]

1950s

The earliest known sample of HIV-1 is from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo). The sample, designated LEO70, was isolated from the plasma of "an adult Bantu male" who also had a Sickle cell trait and G6PDD, in 1959. At the time of the sample's isolation, he was living in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo. [9] The isolated strain was found to be most closely related to modern genome sequences of HIV-1 (M) subgroup D.

Possible cases of AIDS from this period include:

Researchers begin to note the spread of Pneumocystis pneumonia and concurrent Cytomegalovirus infections, considered novel to the European continent, and both AIDS related conditions. Some of these cases occurred in infants considered immunocompetent. [15]

1960s

In 1960, a woman in modern-day Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo) died, and a lymph node sample was taken and fixed with formaldehyde and preserved in paraffin. In 2008, the sample was tested by researchers, identifying partial HIV viral sequences. [8] The specimen, named DRC60 contained a strain of HIV-1 around 88% similar to LEO70, but was found to be most closely related to HIV-1 (M) subgroup A isolates. These two specimens are significant not only because they are the oldest known specimens of HIV-1, but because they show that the virus already had an extensive amount of genetic diversity by 1960. [8]

Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old boy who died in 1969, is considered to be the first recorded case of AIDS in the United States. [16] [17]

1970s

Researchers sampled blood from 75 children in Uganda to serve as controls for a study of Burkitt lymphoma. In 1985, retroactive testing of the frozen blood serum indicated that 50 of the children had antibodies to a virus related to HIV. [18]

Arvid Darre Noe (an anagram of his birth name Arne Vidar Røed) was a Norwegian sailor and truck driver who was probably infected in Cameroon some time between 1962 and 1965, and died on 24 April 1976. His eight-year-old daughter had died three months earlier, and his wife died in December 1976. Tissues of Røed, his wife and daughter all tested positive for HIV-1 type O, in an epidemiology study in 1988. [19] [20]

Grethe Rask was a Danish surgeon who traveled to Zaire in 1964 then again in 1972 to aid the sick. She was likely directly exposed to blood from many Congolese patients, one of whom infected her. She became unwell in 1974, then returned to Denmark in 1977, with her colleagues baffled by her symptoms. She died of pneumocystis pneumonia in December 1977. Her tissues were examined and tested by her colleagues and found positive in 1987. [21] [22]

A Portuguese man was treated at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London by Anthony Bryceson until he died of the disease in 1978. He is the first confirmed case of HIV-2 and it is believed he was exposed to the disease in Guinea-Bissau, where he lived between 1956 and 1966. [23]

Herbert Heinrich was a German concert violinist who died in 1979. Tests in 1989 found that he was HIV-positive, and there has been speculation that he was infected by a sex worker who was infected by Noe. [20]

See also

References

  1. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (5 June 1981). "Pneumocystis pneumonia--Los Angeles". MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30 (21): 250–252. ISSN   0149-2195. PMID   6265753. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  2. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (3 July 1981). "Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia among homosexual men--New York City and California". MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30 (25): 305–308. ISSN   0149-2195. PMID   6789108. Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Sharp, Paul M.; Hahn, Beatrice H. (September 2011). "Origins of HIV and the AIDS pandemic". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 1 (1): a006841. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a006841. ISSN   2157-1422. PMC   3234451 . PMID   22229120.
  4. 1 2 Keele, Brandon F.; Van Heuverswyn, Fran; Li, Yingying; Bailes, Elizabeth; Takehisa, Jun; Santiago, Mario L.; Bibollet-Ruche, Frederic; Chen, Yalu; Wain, Louise V.; Liegeois, Florian; Loul, Severin (28 July 2006). "Chimpanzee reservoirs of pandemic and nonpandemic HIV-1". Science. 313 (5786): 523–526. Bibcode:2006Sci...313..523K. doi:10.1126/science.1126531. ISSN   1095-9203. PMC   2442710 . PMID   16728595.
  5. Bailes, Elizabeth; Gao, Feng; Bibollet-Ruche, Frederic; Courgnaud, Valerie; Peeters, Martine; Marx, Preston A.; Hahn, Beatrice H.; Sharp, Paul M. (13 June 2003). "Hybrid origin of SIV in chimpanzees". Science. 300 (5626): 1713. doi:10.1126/science.1080657. ISSN   1095-9203. PMID   12805540. S2CID   5294547.
  6. James Gallagher (2 October 2014). "Aids: Origin of pandemic 'was 1920s Kinshasa'". BBC. Archived from the original on 6 June 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  7. Faria, Nuno R.; Rambaut, Andrew; Suchard, Marc A.; Baele, Guy; Bedford, Trevor; Ward, Melissa J.; Tatem, Andrew J.; Sousa, João D.; Arinaminpathy, Nimalan; Pépin, Jacques; Posada, David (3 October 2014). "HIV epidemiology. The early spread and epidemic ignition of HIV-1 in human populations". Science. 346 (6205): 56–61. doi:10.1126/science.1256739. ISSN   1095-9203. PMC   4254776 . PMID   25278604.
  8. 1 2 3 Worobey, Michael; Gemmel, Marlea; Teuwen, Dirk E.; Haselkorn, Tamara; Kunstman, Kevin; Bunce, Michael; Muyembe, Jean-Jacques; Kabongo, Jean-Marie M.; et al. (2008). "Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960". Nature. 455 (7213): 661–4. Bibcode:2008Natur.455..661W. doi:10.1038/nature07390. PMC   3682493 . PMID   18833279.
  9. Zhu, Tuofu; Korber, Bette T.; Nahmias, Andre J.; Hooper, Edward; Sharp, Paul M.; Ho, David D. (5 February 1998). "An African HIV-1 sequence from 1959 and implications for the origin of the epidemic". Nature. 391 (6667): 594–597. Bibcode:1998Natur.391..594Z. doi: 10.1038/35400 . ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   9468138. S2CID   4416837.
  10. Wyatt, J. P.; Trumbull, M. L.; Evans, M.; et al. (1953). "Cytomegalic Inclusion Pneumonitis in the adult". American Journal of Clinical Pathology . 23 (4): 353–362. doi:10.1093/ajcp/23.4.353. PMID   13040294.
  11. Huminer, D.; Rosenfeld, J. (1987). "AIDS in the Pre-AIDS era". Reviews of Infectious Diseases. 9 (6): 1102–1108. doi:10.1093/clinids/9.6.1102. PMID   3321360.
  12. Connor, Steve (24 March 1995). "How scientists discovered false evidence on the world's "first AIDS victim"". The Independent . pp. 2–3. Archived from the original on 24 February 2005. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  13. Hennigar, G.R., Lyons, H.A. et al., Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in an adult, American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 1961, 35(4), 353–364.
  14. 1 2 Chicago Tribune How Long Has Virus Been Stalking Victims? 25 October 1987 Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 May 2008
  15. Hamperl, H (10 June 1955). "Pneumocystis Infection and Cytomegaly of the Lungs in the Newborn and Adult". The American Journal of Pathology. 32 (1): 1–13. PMC   1942588 . PMID   13275561.
  16. Kolata, Gina (28 October 1987). "Boy's 1969 Death Suggests AIDS Invaded U.S. Several Times". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  17. Garry RF, Witte MH, Gottlieb AA, Elvin-Lewis M, Gottlieb MS, Witte CL, Alexander SS, Cole WR, Drake WL Jr (October 1988). "Documentation of an AIDS virus infection in the United States in 1968". JAMA. 260 (14): 2085–7. doi:10.1001/jama.1988.03410140097031. PMID   3418874.
  18. W. C. Saxinger; P. H. Levine; A. G. Dean; G. de The; G. Lange-Wantzin; J. Moghissi; F. Laurent; M. Hoh; R. C. Gallo; Gallo, R. C.; et al. (March 1985). "Evidence for exposure to HTLV-III in Uganda before 1973" (PDF). Science . 227 (4690): 1036–1038. Bibcode:1985Sci...227.1036S. doi:10.1126/science.2983417. PMID   2983417. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  19. Fro̸land, S.S.; Jenum, P.; Lindboe, C.F.; Wefring, K.W.; Linnestad, P.J.; Böhmer, T. (11 June 1988). "HIV-1 infection in Norwegian family before 1970". The Lancet . 331 (8598): 1344–1345. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(88)92164-2. PMID   2897596. S2CID   35124293. Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  20. 1 2 Hooper, Edward (20 December 1997). "Sailors and star-bursts, and the arrival of HIV". BMJ . 315 (7123): 1689–1691. doi:10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1689. PMC   2128008 . PMID   9448543.
  21. Maj, Helle (10 November 2020). "After hard working days she rested by the beautiful Ebola River". globalhealth.ku.dk. Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  22. Maj, Helle (9 June 2020). "Grethe Rask reddede liv på congolesisk missionshospital, indtil mødet med ukendt virus blev fatalt". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). Archived from the original on 15 July 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  23. A D M Bryceson, A M Tomkins, D Ridley, D Warhurst, A Goldstone, G Bayliss, J Toswill, J Ridley. HIV-2 associated AIDS in the 1970s. Letter Lancet, 1988, ii, 221.