HIV History

Although researchers have traced the origins of HIV as far back as the 1930s, the first diagnosis of AIDS was not made until 1981. The following year, the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Canada. The first Canadian death attributed to AIDS occurred in 1983, and approximately 21,000 people in Canada have since died while infected with HIV or AIDS. HIV first appeared in the gay male population and people infected by the blood supply. The face of HIV has changed dramatically in Canada over the past thirty years and we now see Canada’s HIV epidemic is now actually several epidemics, occurring in specific populations.