Timeline of early HIV/AIDS cases explained

HIV/AIDS was recognised as a novel illness in the early 1980s. An AIDS case is classified as "early" if the death occurred before 5 June 1981, when the AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in the United States.^{[1] [2]}

Virus origins

All known subgroups of HIV-1 and HIV-2 are thought to have entered humans as distinct cross-species transmissions of Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) from primates.^{[3] [4]}

SIV exists as distinct lineages that cluster in different species of primates. HIV-1 is most similar to the SIV found in common chimpanzees (SIVcpz) in southeastern Cameroon, giving rise to the notion that HIV-1 emerged from chimpanzees in this area. SIVcpz itself emerged in chimpanzees as the result of a recombination of two separate lineages of SIV known to infect red-capped mangabey, and Cercopithecus species.^[5]

Early 20th century

HIV-1 group M (responsible for the global pandemic) is estimated to have emerged in humans around 1920 near Kinshasa, then part of the Belgian Congo. This estimation was the result of time-scaled evolutionary models being applied to modern samples and retrieved early samples of HIV-1 (M).^{[6] [7]} It had previously been estimated from the genetic differences between LEO70 and DRC60 samples and later samples that HIV-1 group M had jumped into humans in 1908 ± 10 years.^[8]

1950s

The earliest known sample of HIV-1 is from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo). The sample, designated LEO70, was isolated from the plasma of "an adult Bantu male" who also had a Sickle cell trait and G6PDD, in 1959. At the time of the samples isolation, he was living in Léopoldville, Belgian Congo.^[9] The isolated strain was found to be most closely related to modern genome sequences of HIV-1 (M) subgroup D.

Possible cases of AIDS from this period include:

• Richard Edwin Graves Jr., a 28-year-old World War II veteran who had been stationed in the Solomon Islands. Graves died on 26 July 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee with pneumocystis pneumonia and CMV, which some authors suggest constitutes a sufficient number of opportunistic infections for a clinical course suggestive of an AIDS diagnosis.^{[10] [11]}
• David Carr, a Manchester printer (sometimes mistakenly referred to as a sailor) who died on 31 August 1959 following the failure of his immune system; he succumbed to pneumonia. Baffled by what he had died from, doctors preserved 50 of his tissue samples for inspection. In 1990, the tissues were found to be HIV-positive. However, in 1992, a second test by AIDS researcher David Ho found that the strain of HIV which was present in the tissues was similar to the strain of HIV which was found in tissue samples which were collected and analyzed in the late 1980s rather than an earlier strain of HIV (which would have mutated considerably over the course of 30 years). Ho's discovery has cast doubt on the theory that David Carr's death was caused by AIDS.^[12]
• Ardouin Antonio, a 49-year-old Jamaican-born Haitian,^{[13] [14]} has been suggested as a possible early AIDS case. Antonio had emigrated to the United States in 1927, and at the time of his death, he was working as a shipping clerk for a garment manufacturer in Manhattan. He developed symptoms which were similar to the symptoms which David Carr developed, and he died on 28 June 1959, apparently of the same very rare kind of pneumonia that killed Carr. Many years later, Dr. Gordon R. Hennigar, who had performed the autopsy on Antonio's body, was asked whether or not he thought his patient had died of AIDS; he replied "You bet ... It was so unusual at the time. Lord knows how many cases of AIDS have been autopsied that we didn't even know had AIDS. I think it's such a strong possibility that I've often thought about getting them to send me the tissue samples."

Researchers begin to note the spread of Pneumocystis pneumonia and concurrent Cytomegalovirus infections, considered novel to the European continent, and both AIDS related conditions. Some of these cases occurred in infants considered immunocompetent.^[15]

1960s

In 1960, a woman in modern-day Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire, formerly the Belgian Congo) died, and a lymph node sample was taken and fixed with Formaldehyde and preserved in paraffin. In 2008, the sample was tested by researchers, identifying partial HIV viral sequences. The specimen, named DRC60 contained a strain of HIV-1 around 88% similar to LEO70, but was found to be most closely related to HIV-1 (M) subgroup A isolates. These two specimens are significant not only because they are the oldest known specimens of HIV-1, but because they show that the virus already had an extensive amount of genetic diversity by 1960.

Robert Rayford, a 16-year-old boy who died in 1969, is considered to be the first recorded case of AIDS in the United States.^{[16] [17]}

1970s

Researchers drew blood from 75 children in Uganda to serve as controls for a study of Burkitt lymphoma. In 1985, retroactive testing of the frozen blood serum indicated that 50 of the children had antibodies to a virus related to HIV.^[18]

Arvid Darre Noe (an anagram of his birth name Arne Vidar Røed) was a Norwegian sailor and truck driver who was probably infected in Cameroon some time between 1962 and 1965, and died on 24 April 1976. His eight-year-old daughter had died three months earlier, and his wife died in December 1976. Tissues of Røed, his wife and daughter all tested positive for HIV-1 type O, in an epidemiology study in 1988.^{[19] [20]}

Grethe Rask was a Danish surgeon who traveled to Zaire in 1964 then again in 1972 to aid the sick. She was likely directly exposed to blood from many Congolese patients, one of whom infected her. She became unwell in 1974, then returned to Denmark in 1977, with her colleagues baffled by her symptoms. She died of pneumocystis pneumonia in December 1977. Her tissues were examined and tested by her colleagues and found positive in 1987.^{[21] [22]}

A Portuguese man was treated at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London by Professor Anthony Bryceson until he died of the disease in 1978. He is the first confirmed case of HIV-2 and it is believed he was exposed to the disease in Guinea-Bissau, where he lived between 1956 and 1966.^[23]

Herbert Heinrich was a German concert violinist who died in 1979. Tests in 1989 found that he was HIV-positive, and there has been speculation that he was infected by a sex worker who was infected by Noe.^[20]

See also

• List of HIV-positive people
• History of HIV/AIDS
• Timeline of HIV/AIDS

External links

• Cribb, Julian, The White Death, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1996

Notes and References

1. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 1981-06-05. Pneumocystis pneumonia--Los Angeles. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30. 21. 250–252. 0149-2195. 6265753. 10 March 2021. 22 April 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090422042240/http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/june_5.htm. live.
2. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 1981-07-03. Kaposi's sarcoma and Pneumocystis pneumonia among homosexual men--New York City and California. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30. 25. 305–308. 0149-2195. 6789108. 10 March 2021. 18 March 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210318010439/https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/1265. live.
3. Sharp. Paul M.. Hahn. Beatrice H.. September 2011. Origins of HIV and the AIDS pandemic. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 1. 1. a006841. 10.1101/cshperspect.a006841. 2157-1422. 3234451. 22229120.
4. Keele. Brandon F.. Van Heuverswyn. Fran. Li. Yingying. Bailes. Elizabeth. Takehisa. Jun. Santiago. Mario L.. Bibollet-Ruche. Frederic. Chen. Yalu. Wain. Louise V.. Liegeois. Florian. Loul. Severin. 2006-07-28. Chimpanzee reservoirs of pandemic and nonpandemic HIV-1. Science. 313. 5786. 523–526. 10.1126/science.1126531. 1095-9203. 2442710. 16728595. 2006Sci...313..523K.
5. Bailes. Elizabeth. Gao. Feng. Bibollet-Ruche. Frederic. Courgnaud. Valerie. Peeters. Martine. Marx. Preston A.. Hahn. Beatrice H.. Sharp. Paul M.. 2003-06-13. Hybrid origin of SIV in chimpanzees. Science. 300. 5626. 1713. 10.1126/science.1080657. 1095-9203. 12805540. 5294547. 10 March 2021. 25 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210525181953/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12805540/. live.
6. News: Aids: Origin of pandemic 'was 1920s Kinshasa'. James Gallagher. BBC. 2 October 2014. 5 October 2014. 6 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220606213004/https://www.bbc.com/news/health-29442642. live.
7. Faria. Nuno R.. Rambaut. Andrew. Suchard. Marc A. . Baele . Guy. Bedford . Trevor . Ward. Melissa J.. Tatem . Andrew J.. Sousa. João D. . Arinaminpathy. Nimalan. Pépin. Jacques. Posada. David. October 3, 2014. HIV epidemiology. The early spread and epidemic ignition of HIV-1 in human populations. Science. 346. 6205. 56–61 . 10.1126/science.1256739 . 1095-9203. 4254776. 25278604.
8. Worobey . Michael . Gemmel . Marlea . Teuwen . Dirk E. . Haselkorn . Tamara . Kunstman . Kevin . Bunce . Michael . Muyembe . Jean-Jacques . Kabongo . Jean-Marie M. . Kalengayi . Raphaël M. . Van Marck . Eric . Gilbert . M. Thomas P. . Wolinsky . Steven M. . Direct evidence of extensive diversity of HIV-1 in Kinshasa by 1960 . Nature . 455 . 7213 . 661–4 . 2008 . 18833279 . 10.1038/nature07390. 2008Natur.455..661W . 3682493. 8 .
9. Zhu . Tuofu . Korber . Bette T. . Nahmias . Andre J. . Hooper . Edward . Sharp . Paul M. . Ho . David D. . 5 February 1998 . An African HIV-1 sequence from 1959 and implications for the origin of the epidemic . Nature . en . 391 . 6667 . 594–597 . 10.1038/35400 . 9468138 . 1998Natur.391..594Z . 4416837 . 1476-4687. free .
10. Wyatt . J. P. . Trumbull . M. L. . Evans . M. . etal . Cytomegalic Inclusion Pneumonitis in the adult . . 1953 . 23 . 4 . 353–362 . 10.1093/ajcp/23.4.353 . 13040294 .
11. Huminer . D. . Rosenfeld . J. . AIDS in the Pre-AIDS era . Reviews of Infectious Diseases . 9 . 6 . 1102–1108 . 10.1093/clinids/9.6.1102 . 3321360 . 1987 .
12. News: Connor . Steve . How scientists discovered false evidence on the world's "first AIDS victim" . 2–3 . . 24 March 1995 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050224100005/http://www.aegis.org/news/misc/1995/IN950301.html . dead . 24 February 2005 . 11 February 2009.
13. Hennigar, G.R., Lyons, H.A. et al., Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in an adult, American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 1961, 35(4), 353–364.
14. Chicago Tribune How Long Has Virus Been Stalking Victims? 25 October 1987 retrieved 15 May 2008
15. Hamperl . H . 10 June 1955 . Pneumocystis Infection and Cytomegaly of the Lungs in the Newborn and Adult . The American Journal of Pathology . 32 . 1 . 1–13. 13275561 . 1942588 .
16. News: Kolata . Gina . Boy's 1969 Death Suggests AIDS Invaded U.S. Several Times . . 28 October 1987 . 11 February 2009 . 11 February 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090211024256/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD6173AF93BA15753C1A961948260&sec=health&pagewanted=all . live .
17. Garry RF, Witte MH, Gottlieb AA, Elvin-Lewis M, Gottlieb MS, Witte CL, Alexander SS, Cole WR, Drake WL Jr . Documentation of an AIDS virus infection in the United States in 1968. . JAMA . 260 . 14 . 2085–7 . October 1988 . 3418874 . 10.1001/jama.1988.03410140097031.
18. Evidence for exposure to HTLV-III in Uganda before 1973 . . 227 . 4690 . 1036–1038 . March 1985 . 2983417 . W. C. Saxinger . P. H. Levine . A. G. Dean . G. de The . G. Lange-Wantzin . J. Moghissi . F. Laurent . M. Hoh . R. C. Gallo . etal . Gallo . R. C. . 10.1126/science.2983417 . 1985Sci...227.1036S . 27 December 2013 . 4 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210704012639/http://www.epiinformatics.com/ADPublications/HTLV1Antibodies.pdf . live .
19. Fro̸land. S.S.. Jenum. P.. Lindboe. C.F.. Wefring. K.W.. Linnestad. P.J.. Böhmer. T.. HIV-1 infection in Norwegian family before 1970. The Lancet. 11 June 1988. 331. 8598. 1344–1345. 10.1016/S0140-6736(88)92164-2. 2897596. 35124293. 21 October 2016. 22 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161022022220/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20257855. live.
20. Hooper. Edward. Sailors and star-bursts, and the arrival of HIV. BMJ. 20 December 1997. 315. 7123. 1689–1691. 10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1689. 9448543. 2128008.
21. Web site: Maj. Helle. 2020-11-10. After hard working days she rested by the beautiful Ebola River. live. 2021-03-15. globalhealth.ku.dk. en. 15 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210715183748/https://globalhealth.ku.dk/news/2020/after-hard-working-days-she-rested-by-the-beautiful-river-ebola/.
22. Web site: Maj. Helle. 2020-06-09. Grethe Rask reddede liv på congolesisk missionshospital, indtil mødet med ukendt virus blev fatalt. live. 2021-03-15. Kristeligt Dagblad. da. 15 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210715230801/https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/udland/i-skovens-dybe-stille-ro.
23. A D M Bryceson, A M Tomkins, D Ridley, D Warhurst, A Goldstone, G Bayliss, J Toswill, J Ridley. HIV-2 associated AIDS in the 1970s. Letter Lancet, 1988, ii, 221.