HIV/AIDS Epidemic and Global Health

Abstract

AIDS has emerged as a global epidemic in an unprecedented universal involvement compelling the transformation of the general outlook towards disease and the emergence of the concept of global health. First cases of AIDS were reported in 19811 and the causative agent (HIV) was recognized in 1983 by Luc Montagnier.2 Different names were given to the disease initially such as lymphadenopathy, Kaposi’s sarcoma and opportunistic infections, Gay-related immune deficiency and the 4H disease, but ultimately the name AIDS was coined in July 1982.