HIV. Origin and Medical Treatment Progress

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject Biology - Virology, University of Stirling, course: Immunology and Disease, language: English, abstract: This paper gives an overview of the history and pathogenesis of HIV, as well as the progresses that have been made to find a possible vaccine. In 1984, the United States announced the discovery of the source behind the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) outbreak that occurred in West Africa throughout the decade. Thanks to the work of Françoise Barré-Sinousssi and Luc Montagnier, an isolated strain of the virus was taken from a deceased patient and later named the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (Smith 2003: "The HIV Vaccine Saga"). The National Cancer Institute announced that a vaccine for the virus would be available to the public within two years. A decade later, President Clinton promised an HIV vaccine would be ready within ten years. Thirty-one years have passed from the discovery of HIV and a vaccine is still not available while the worldwide death count of HIV has reached over 35 million. Billions of dollars have been donated to HIV research thanks to high-profile cases like the deaths of celebrities like Freddie Mercury and Liberace (Smith 2003). To understand the difficulty in producing a vaccination to fight HIV, the disease's background and transmission must be understood. The difficulty for immunology scientists when confronting this virus lies in its common ancestor: Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV).