HIV

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Infectious agent identified as the cause of AIDS. It was first discovered in 1983 by Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who called it lymphocyte-associated virus (LAV). Independently, US scientist Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, claimed its discovery in 1984 and named it human T-lymphocytotrophic virus 3 (HTLV-III).

Transmission
Worldwide, heterosexual activity accounts for three-quarters of all HIV infections. In Europe and the USA, high-risk groups are homosexual and bisexual men, prostitutes, intravenous drug users sharing needles, and haemophiliacs and other patients treated with contaminated blood products. The different distribution of risk in developed and developing countries occurs because different types of the virus are more common in different regions. The virus has a short life outside the body, which makes transmission of the infection by methods other than sexual contact, blood transfusion, and shared syringes extremely unlikely. Pregnant women infected with HIV are unlikely to pass it on to the fetus while in the uterus, but are quite likely to do so via vaginal fluids during birth or after breast-feeding the child. More than 90% of children born to an HIV-positive mother will contract the disease unless their parent has been treated with antiretroviral drugs.

To prevent the spread of HIV, evidence indicates a need to take early action and to invest in publicity and education campaigns. The second key element is to test pregnant women for HIV and give them antiviral drugs if they are HIV-positive, to prevent the transmission of the virus to the baby during childbirth.

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