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AIDS
Table of Contents
References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images & Videos
HIV/AIDS; retrovirus HIV/AIDS; MMWR, June 5, 1981
Learn about the early outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.
How HIV and AIDS redefined the fight against infectious diseases
T cell infected with HIV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test neutralizing antibody; HIV AIDS charity walk AIDS Memorial Quilt AIDS ribbon
For Students
HIV/AIDS; retrovirus
AIDS summary
Quizzes
Encyclopaedia Britannica thistle graphic to be used with a Mendel/Consumer quiz in place of a photograph.
44 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Health and Medicine Quizzes
Read Next
HIV, AIDS, virus
HIV/AIDS: Just the Facts
Red AIDS ribbon. AIDS awareness. AIDS charity. Red ribbon. AIDS disease deficiency HIV.
World AIDS Day
Image concept with the result of the HIV test, AIDS
What’s the Difference Between HIV and AIDS?
Germans from East and West stand on the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the November 10, 1989, photo, one day after the wall opened.
Timeline of the 1980s
Dr. Maria Telkes, September 4, 1956.
10 Women Scientists Who Should Be Famous (or More Famous)
Discover
Figure 13: A Maxim machine gun, belt-fed and water-cooled, operated by German infantrymen, World War I.
7 Deadliest Weapons in History
Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer
Was Santa Claus a Real Person?
The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., April 14th, 1865; from a lithograph by Currier and Ives.
9 Infamous Assassins and the World Leaders They Dispatched
King Cobra snake in Malaysia. (reptile)
9 of the World’s Deadliest Snakes
Saint Lucy. St. Lucia's Day. Saint Lucia Day. Feast of Saint Lucia procession in Syracuse, Italy, December 13. Marks beginning of Christmas season. Christian saint, virgin and martyr died 304 when her neck was pierced by a sword. Luciadagen
St. Lucia’s Day
Government officials are erasing graffiti of Islamic State (ISIS) banner in Solo, Java, Indonesia.
Is It ISIS or ISIL?
Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 9th Mechanized Division learning to operate and maintain M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks at Besmaya Combat Training Center, Baghdad, Iraq, 2011. Military training. Iraq war. U.S. Army
8 Deadliest Wars of the 21st Century

AIDS: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

General interest and in-depth works

Basic information on the political, demographic, and scientific aspects of HIV/AIDS is provided by Alan Whiteside, HIV/AIDS: A Very Short Introduction (2008). Comprehensive coverage of the virus and disease is provided by Hung Fan, Ross F. Conner, and Luis P. Villarreal, AIDS: Science and Society, 5th ed. (2007). The impacts of social and economic issues in Africa on epidemiological and biomedical research of AIDS are discussed in Ezekiel Kalipeni et al. (eds.), HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology (2003).

Documentaries

An informative documentary covering progress in both the sociopolitical and the scientific realms of HIV/AIDS is The Age of AIDS (2006), a PBS Home Video written and produced by Renata Simone, William Cran, and Greg Barker and narrated by Will Lyman. A critically acclaimed documentary about the AIDS pandemic and its impact on people worldwide is A Closer Walk (2006), a Worldwide Documentaries film, produced and directed by Robert Bilheimer and narrated by Glenn Close and Will Smith.

Kara Rogers

Article Contributors

Primary Contributors

  • Keith Dorwick
    Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Computer Communication, University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
  • Annie Dude
  • Kara Rogers
    Kara Rogers is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica, where she oversees a range of content from medicine and genetics to microorganisms. She joined Britannica in 2006 and has been a member of the National Association of Science Writers since 2009.
  • Robert Siliciano
    Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
  • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Other Encyclopedia Britannica Contributors

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Modified link of Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - HIV/AIDS epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment. Dec 09, 2024
Cross-reference added. Feb 09, 2024
Add new Web site: NHS - HIV and AIDS. Jun 27, 2023
Add new Web site: Cleveland Clinic - HIV and AIDS. Mar 31, 2023
Add new Web site: Biology LibreTexts - AIDS. Mar 29, 2023
Add new Web site: Verywell Health - HIV/AIDS. Nov 11, 2022
Added information on a woman declared functionally cured of HIV infection in 2022. Feb 18, 2022
Removed media. Oct 29, 2021
Added information on Timothy Ray Brown. Oct 01, 2020
Added a video about the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the 20th century. Feb 25, 2020
Added information on the ability of HIV-positive individuals to serve as organ donors to other HIV-positive patients. Apr 12, 2019
Added information on the ability of antiretroviral therapy to render HIV undetectable, preventing HIV transmission by sexual contact. Mar 12, 2019
Added information on patients reportedly cured of HIV infection. Mar 06, 2019
Media added. Dec 20, 2018
Add new Web site: HIV.gov - A Timeline of HIV and AIDS. Jul 09, 2018
Add new Web site: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - HIV/AIDS. Jul 09, 2018
Add new Web site: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - HIV/AIDS. Jul 09, 2018
Add new Web site: HIV.gov - A Timeline of HIV and AIDS. Jul 09, 2018
Updated information on trends in annual numbers of new infections and AIDS-related deaths. Jul 03, 2018
Added Angels in America to the list of notable works of art concerning AIDS. Apr 25, 2018
Added cross-references. Mar 27, 2018
Corrected display issue. Feb 23, 2018
Replaced photographs. Jan 10, 2018
Media added. Apr 14, 2017
Media added. Mar 03, 2017
Updated global statistics on HIV/AIDS prevalence. Jan 12, 2016
Added video. Aug 31, 2015
Updated statistics on HIV/AIDS and added information on the discovery of HIV and the association between HIV adaptation to protective immune variants and reduced viral replicative capacity. Mar 16, 2015
New section on HIV and pregnancy added. Jul 11, 2014
Statistics on HIV prevalence and deaths updated. Jul 11, 2014
Add new Web site: MedicineNet - AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Nov 06, 2013
Add new Web site: MedicineNet - AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: HealthCentral - Introduction to HIV/AIDS. Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: University of Maryland Medical Center - HIV/AIDS. Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: Buzzle.com - Where Did AIDS Come From? Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: The Ohio State University - Wexner Medical Center - HIV/AIDS. Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: Healthline - A Comprehensive Guide to HIV and AIDS. Oct 17, 2013
Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - HIV/AIDS epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment. Nov 23, 2012
Add new Web site: WebMD - HIV and AIDS. Nov 23, 2012
Add new Web site: Patient - HIV and AIDS. Nov 23, 2012
Add new Web site: Mayo Clinic - HIV/AIDS. Nov 23, 2012
Updated to mention the approval of Truvada for use in the prevention of HIV transmission by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Jul 17, 2012
Added information on the OraQuick at-home HIV test approved for use in the United States in 2012. Jul 05, 2012
Clarified information on the results of the 2011 preexposure prophylaxis study involving the antiretroviral drug Truvada. Jan 25, 2012
Updated information on the prevalence of AIDS and added mention that the number of new infections reported annually has dropped 21 percent since 1997. Nov 21, 2011
Updated to include information on HIV resistance and multiple drug rescue therapy. Also added information on pre-exposure prophylaxis and daily antiretroviral pills. Jul 27, 2011
Added information on the CDC report published on June 5, 1981, concerning a rare lung infection in homosexual men in Los Angeles. Also restructured introductory sections of article. Jun 01, 2011
Added an image of the HIV genome, a photo of the cover of the June 5, 1981, CDC report of the first AIDS cases, and a photo of a worker at the Gay Men?s Health Crisis in New York in 1985. Jun 01, 2011
Added information on the ability of immediate antiretroviral therapy to reduce the risk of viral transmission by some 96 percent. May 13, 2011
Added an image of a neutralizing antibody bound to an HIV molecule. Apr 12, 2011
Updated to include information on the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4, which act as coreceptors to faciliate HIV entry into T cells. Oct 08, 2010
Added information on vaginal gels designed to prevent HIV infection in women. Jul 22, 2010
Updated to include information on broadly neutralizing antibodies and investigation of these antibodies for HIV vaccine development. Jul 09, 2010
Added images of a T cell infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Feb 16, 2010
Updated to mention immigration bans imposed against HIV-positive persons in the 1980s and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama's announcement on Jan. 4, 2010, that the U.S. ban was lifted. Jan 04, 2010
Added information on the RV144 vaccine. Sep 24, 2009
Added information on the genome sequence of HIV-1. Aug 06, 2009
Added information on the discovery of a new strain of human immunodeficiency virus. Aug 03, 2009
Added information on the ability of simian immunodeficiency virus to cause disease in chimpanzees. Jul 23, 2009
Added information on the incidence of AIDS among homosexual men in sub-Saharan Africa. Jul 21, 2009
Added new Web site: National Geographic - Science and Space - AIDS. Apr 16, 2009
Updated to include information on the rapid evolution of HIV to escape detection by HLA immune molecules. Feb 27, 2009
Updated to include information on the initiation of antiretroviral therapy based on CD4 levels and information on the benefits of early initiation of treatment in infants with HIV. Nov 21, 2008
Article revised and updated. Oct 06, 2008
Article revised and updated. Oct 02, 2008
New bibliography added. Jul 23, 2008
Added new Web site: Kids Health - Teens Health - HIV and AIDS. May 12, 2008
Added new Web site: The Nemours Foundation - Kids' Health for Parents - HIV and AIDS. Apr 30, 2008
Article revised and updated. Sep 21, 2007
Added new Web site: British Broadcasting Corporation - AIDS. Nov 23, 2006
Added new Web site: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention. Nov 01, 2006
Added new Web site: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - AIDS. Oct 30, 2006
Media added. Oct 06, 2006
Added new Web site: Public Broadcasting Service - NOVA - Surviving AIDS. Sep 28, 2006
Added new Web site: Official Site of AVERT - Averting HIV and AIDS. Sep 03, 2006
Added new Web site: Public Broadcasting Service - NOVA - Surviving AIDS. Jul 24, 2006
Article revised. Dec 10, 2004
Article revised. Mar 13, 2003
Article revised. May 17, 2002
Article added to new online database. Jul 20, 1998
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Article History
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