Since the first cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the related human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) became known in the early 1980s, scientists and researchers around the world have spent billions of dollars and thousands of hours to discover how the diseases are caused and what options are available to stop their progression. International conferences held in the mid-1980s allowed data to be shared on what exactly AIDS and HIV are, and to develop blood tests to diagnose them. Once the disease could be identified, however, the severity of the illness and the extent of the worldwide epidemic became a daunting challenge.

By the late 1980s, treatments for the virus became known throughout the medical community and the collection of horrific infections that prey on the severely weakened immune systems of those with AIDS could be managed to some extent. The...