30 years of AIDS 30 years of AIDS. Thirty years ago, on June 5, 1981, U.S. health agencies began tracking unusual clusters of diseases that would later be identified as the first cases diagnosed as AIDS. Since then, more than 750,000 Americans have died from the epidemic, and more than 1.1 million people are living with HIV in the U.S. We look at the milestones in the fight against AIDS as well as statistics for the most populous countries. Baby diagnosed with AIDS 1982 In a discovery that changed the perception of how the virus is spread, an infant is diagnosed as the first AIDS case from a blood transfusion. AIDS is proposed by health officials to replace GRID, as HIV is found not just in homosexuals. Watch a video about the history of the definition of AIDS. Dr. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi AIDS 1983 Doctor isolates retrovirus Dr. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, a virologistat the Pasteur Institute, isolates a retrovirus that kills T cells in the lymph system of AIDS patients. She went o...