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Since the first reports of AIDS, approximately 36 million people have died from the disease, with an estimated 35 million living with HIV. Drug therapy consists of HAART, highly active antiretroviral therapy, which slows progression of the disease and lessens risk of death. Today, researchers are closer than ever to finding a functional cure and developing a preventive vaccine; however, research could not have begun without an event that took place thirty years ago today.

AIDS was first recognized by the US CDC in 1981, but it was to be a few more years before its cause was discovered. On April 23rd 1984, Dr Robert C Gallo and colleagues announced this very discovery – they had identified the retrovirus that causes AIDS, but, more importantly, they had also developed an HIV blood test in order to diagnose the illness.

The retrovirus responsible was later named HIV, and its discovery enabled research and the eventual development of viral drug therapy, saving millions of lives around the world.

Today, Robert Gallo, who is also an F1000Prime Head of Faculty in Infectious Diseases, directs the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which treats more than 500,000 HIV-positive individuals in 7 African and 2 Caribbean nations, amongst others, and has research collaborations with China, Italy and France. The IHV is internationally renowned for its HIV research, which includes the launch of clinical trials this year on a promising preventive HIV vaccine.

Gallo is also Scientific Director of the Global Virus Network, an initiative he co-founded in 2011, which aims to bring together the best medical virologists in order to advance knowledge about viruses and their illnesses, and develop preventative drugs and vaccines – the vital knowledge that was lacking when he himself set out to investigate human retroviruses. He says his intention was “to create the kind of safety net of leading medical virologists that did not exist when HIV first emerged.”

Speaking of the thirtieth anniversary of the HIV/AIDS announcement, Gallo said, “I believe the field is close to a functional cure for AIDS … A functional cure refers to an HIV infected person who could keep the virus suppressed … [and] wouldn’t ever need to take antiretroviral drug therapy anymore.” He continues, “While there are difficult basic science research challenges that need to be solved, I also believe an effective and safe HIV preventive vaccine is doable, and I hope supporters continue to provide us the resources necessary to solve this herculean and important problem.”

Fun fact: Robert Gallo is the only person to hold two Lasker awards – the first in 1982 for his pioneering studies that led to the discovery of the first human RNA tumor virus and its association with certain leukemias and lymphomas, and the second in 1986 for determining that the HIV-1 retrovirus is the cause of AIDS.