Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.Please tell me what HIV was called before HIV....was it HTLV1, HTLV2, or what? Also, when did it change to being called HIV and what date was GRID no longer called GRID? I would appreciate your expertise on this.
Mark H. Katz, M.D.
Regional HIV/AIDS Physician Coordinator
Kaiser Permanente of Southern California
GRID was the original acronym for what clinicians were seeing in the early 1980s--Gay-Related ImmunoDeficiency. The term AIDS was actually "born," and replaced GRID, on September 24, 1982. It was clear by that time, one year and a few months into the epidemic, that this condition was not confined to gay people.
Then, the causative agent was discovered almost simultaneously by the French and Americans--the former called it LAV (lymphadenopathy-associated virus) and the latter HTLV-III (human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III). The second term "stuck," and this was the causative agent of AIDS, until the CDC renamed it HIV in 1985. Of course, it has remained that since then.
There are other human T-cell lymphotropic viruses, also retroviruses and closely related to HIV. These are called HTLV-I (the Roman numeral system is usually used for the number after the virus name) and HTLV-II.
Hope this helps!
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