Timeline of early AIDS cases

This article is a timeline of early AIDS cases.

An AIDS case is classified as "early" if the death occurred before June 18, 1981, when the AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.

1959
Unidentified Kinshasa man: The earliest confirmed death from AIDS. Although the name of the victim is not known, plasma from him was tested in 1999 at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center by David Ho and tested positive.

David Carr: A Manchester printer (usually referred to, mistakenly, as a sailor) who died in October 1959 following the failure of his immune system and succumbing to pneumonia. Doctors, baffled by what he had died from, preserved fifty of his tissue samples for inspection. In 1990, the tissues were found to be HIV-positive. However, in 1992, a second test by AIDS researcher David Ho found that the strain of HIV found in the tissues was similar to those found in the late 1980s rather than an earlier strain (which would have mutated considerably over the course of thirty years). Ho's discovery has cast doubt on David Carr's death being caused by AIDS, and there is much debate over this topic. 

1969
Robert R.: The first confirmed case of AIDS in the United States. In late 1968, a 15-year-old African-American male known only as Robert R. (his last name was kept private) was admitted to a hospital in St. Louis following a breakdown of his immune system and aggressive Kaposi's sarcoma. Doctors were baffled, and Robert's condition worsened over the next few months, and he died following a bout with pneumonia in April 1969. In 1987, Dr. Theresa Witte, one of the physicians who cared for Robert, asked a fellow doctor to test some of Robert's tissue samples. All three tests came up positive. While it is almost certain that he caught the disease through sexual intercourse, it is not known whether or not he had caught it through homosexual or heterosexual sex; however, some of his physicians suspected that Robert was gay. He had never been to Africa, meaning that there was probably a previous AIDS case in America who infected Robert, but who remains unidentified. 

1976
Arvid Noe: A Norwegian sailor and lorry driver, who was probably infected in Cameroon some time between 1961 and 1965. After being fired from his job as a sailor in 1972, he became a lorry driver from 1972 until 1975. He picked up many prostitutes during this time, unknowingly giving them AIDS as well. He impregnated his wife in 1967, infecting both his wife and, later, his daughter, who was infected through childbirth. He retired from his job in 1975, being too sick to work, and died in 1976. His tissues were tested positive in an epididimology study in 1988. 

1977
Noe family: The wife and 9-year-old daughter of Arvid Noe (mentioned above) both died in 1977. Their tissues were also tested positive in the same study in 1988.

Grethe Rask: A Danish surgeon who traveled to Congo in 1972 to aid the sick. She was likely directly exposed to blood contact from many Congolese patients, one of whom infected her. She returned to Denmark in late 1976, with her colleagues baffled by her symptoms. She died in April 1977. Her tissues were examined and tested positive by her colleagues in 1984.

1978
Senhor Jose: A Portuguese man who is the first confirmed case of HIV-2. He was believed to have been exposed to the disease in Guinea-Bissau in 1966. He was treated at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases by Professor Anthony Bryceson until finally succumbing to the disease in 1978.

Also, three cases among gay men in California and six cases among Haitian immigrants to the United States were confirmed.

1979
Herbert Heinrich: Bisexual German concert violinist. Tests in 1989 found that he was HIV-positive, and there has been speculation that he was infected by a prostitute who was infected by Noe, but as of 1997, this is not proved; see Arvid Noe for further information.

Also, four new cases were reported among gay men in California, and five new cases among Haitian immigrants to the United States.