30 Years After the Discovery of HIV, a Timeline of AIDS Milestones

April 23 marks 30 years since the U.S. announced the discovery of what causes AIDS: a retrovirus called HTLV-III, later renamed HIV. At their 1984 press conference, in the face of one of the world's most terrifying medical epidemics, Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler and virologist Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute projected scientists would be able to produce an AIDS vaccine within two years

"That turned out to be totally incorrect," Heckler told PBS in 2006. "But at that time, we did not know that the replication of the virus would be so difficult — and it still is a problem." Read more...