For the first time in the U.S., a larger proportion of AIDS cases occur among African Americans (41%) than among whites (38%).
The FDA approves the first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (nevirapine), as well as a new viral load test that can measure the level of HIV in a patient’s blood.
Combination therapy is made available to HIV/AIDS patients for the first time, leading to a dramatic decline in AIDS-related deaths.
amfAR grantee Dr. Nathaniel Landau publishes research demonstrating that HIV requires a protein called CCR5 to infect cells. (See 1999.)
The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) is established to coordinate a global response to the pandemic. (An early amfAR grantee, Dr. Peter Piot, is named its Executive Director.)
Between 1992 and 1996, the number of mother-to-infant HIV transmissions in the U.S. dropped by two-thirds, primarily as a result of treatment of HIV-infected mothers and their newborns with AZT.
Reports from the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, Canada, indicate that new combination therapies that include a protease inhibitor are extending the lives of some HIV/AIDS patients.
The first home HIV test is approved by the FDA.
As published in The Lancet, the results of a four-year amfAR-funded study of syringe exchange programs in New York City show that such programs reduce HIV infections by two-thirds and facilitate access to drug treatment and other health care services.
For the first time since the start of the epidemic, the number of Americans dying from AIDS declines, dropping 23% from the previous year. The decline is attributed primarily to the success of the new combination therapies.
The U.N. estimates that 22.6 million people are infected with HIV and 6.4 million people have died of AIDS worldwide.
amfAR staff member Travis Rogers dies of AIDS.
U.S. YEAR-END STATISTICS
581,429 cases of AIDS reported to date
362,004 deaths
