ON THIS DAY

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April 23, 1984

Researchers discover the virus that causes AIDS.

Aids, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, weakens the immune system, leaving its victims open to a series of wasting diseases. Those people who appear to be more at risk of contracting Aids include homosexuals, haemophiliacs, drug users and those who have received blood transfusions.

On this day in 1984 U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler announced that researchers had found what was believed to be the virus that causes AIDS. This was hailed as a "monumental breakthrough" in medical research. Heckler said the virus was a variant of a known human cancer virus called HTLV-3. A blood test had been developed, which, she said, would be available within six months, preventing transfusion patients contracting the disease through tainted blood products. She also suggested that a vaccine to prevent Aids might be ready for testing in two years' time. The virus was later named Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

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