Wed, 01/16/2019 - 10:18 gkellett
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From left, scientists Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo shake hands after a news conference in Oviedo, Spain, on October 26, 2000. Montagnier and Gallo are credited for identifying the HIV virus.
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Reuters
Jan 1, 2001

Dr. Robert Gallo and his team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health published a report claiming that they had isolated the retrovirus that causes AIDS, a year after Institut Pasteur of France made the same claim. Both teams believed their virus was the cause of AIDS. Only in 1986 would scientists discover that both viruses were, in fact, the same entity and name it the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A public (and at times, vitriolic) patent fight over who discovered the retrovirus first quickly ensued between U.S. and French labs, giving many people with AIDS the impression that the scientific community was more interested in claiming credit than finding effective treatment.

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May 4, 1984