Cause Of AIDS Announced 30 Years Ago

News outlets recount the announcement 30 years ago that scientists had discovered the virus that causes AIDS.

ABC News: HIV Turns 30 Today
“It’s been 30 years since scientists announced the cause of AIDS: a shifty retrovirus that would come to be known as HIV…” (Moisse, 4/23).

ABC News: Researchers Identify HIV Virus: April 23, 1984
The news outlet provides a video report from 1984 and notes, “Health and Human Services officials referred to the virus as ‘HTLV-3’ during a 1984 news conference” (4/23).

Associated Press: AP Was There: Probable cause of AIDS found
“…On April 23, 1984, the Department of Health and Human Services held a press conference to announce that the probable cause of the disease had been found — a virus that was eventually called the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. … Thirty years after its publication, the AP is making its original report on the announcement available…” (Leary, 4/23).

MSNBC: The day they discovered the AIDS virus
The announcement “revealed the source of what would soon become one of the worst plagues in human history, and it sparked scientific and social revolutions that are still playing out today…” (Cowley, 4/23).

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