HTLV-III discovered

The United States Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announces that Dr Robert Gallo, from the USA National Cancer Institute, has found the cause of AIDS, a virus called HTLV-III, and a test for the virus is in development. The press conference sparks the beginning of a debate with the Pasteur Institute in France, who also claimed to have discovered the cause of AIDS the previous year in a virus they called LAV. LAV and HTLV-III are later acknowledged to be the same.