Roller coaster of the HIV pandemic
1982: A year after it is recorded in the US, the first case of HIV is diagnosed in South Africa. Two gay flight attendants who had recently travelled to the US are believed to be South Africa’s first recorded cases.
1983: French scientists Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Pasteur Institute identify the virus that causes Aids. But similar discoveries by US scientist Robert Gallo lead to a spat between the countries. It is solved only in 1987 when presidents Ronald Reagan and Jacques Chirac sign a deal splitting the royalties for the patented Aids test between them. The virus is named HIV only around 1986.
1988: International World Aids Day is launched.
1991: The red ribbon, the symbol of Aids awareness, is launched at the Tony Awards, the US awards show for Broadway theatre.
Queen lead singer Freddy Mercury dies and basketball star Magic Johnson announces he tested positive for HIV.
1998: Thabo Mbeki becomes president of South Africa. He appoints Manto TshabalalaMsimang as his health minister.
The Treatment Action Campaign is launched in Cape Town.
2000: Mbeki announces that HIV does not cause Aids and Tshabalala-Msimang says that antiretrovirals will not be used in South Africa. She says they are toxic and not a cure for Aids.
2001: Medécins Sans Frontierès starts an ARV programme in Khayelitsha using private funding.
2002: The Treatment Action Campaign takes the Department of Health to court in a bid to allow pregnant women access to Nevirapine, a drug shown to reduce mother-to-child transmission. The Constitutional Court rules in favour of the TAC, thereby compelling the government to provide Nevirapine to pregnant HIVpositive mothers. This effectively launches South Africa’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme.
2003: The Department of Health starts rolling out ARVs in the public sector.
2005: Tshabalala-Msimang says a diet consisting of beetroot, olive oil, lemons, garlic and African potatoes can prevent HIV infection. She is called Dr Beetroot.
2006: A group of prisoners at Durban’s Westville prison and the TAC go to court to fight for their access to ARV treatment. The Department of Health loses the case and the subsequent appeal.
2008: Timothy Ray Brown becomes “the Berlin patient” after receiving a stem cell transplant that cures his HIV. A genetic defect in the donor means the virus cannot attach to Brown’s cells anymore, rendering him cured.
Montagnier and BarréSinoussi win the Nobel prize for science. Gallo is snubbed.
2011: The Department of Health introduces a new breastfeeding policy in a bid to improve child health. The policy encourages exclusive breastfeeding for six months, coupled with ARV treatment.
2012: A new R5.9-billion ARV tender, supplying drugs to 1.7 million South Africans, is announced by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
South African scientists take positive steps in their research towards finding a vaccine to fight HIV.
2013: Fixed-dose ARVs, a simpler, single pill treatment, is rolled out in South Africa.