Human immunodeficiency virus originated in West Africa, with the first confirmed case being recorded in 1959. The virus slowly spread across Africa and then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, exploded throughout other parts of the world. HIV is the underlying cause of AIDS, a disease that attacks the immune system, and is passed from person to person through contact with bodily fluids. As AIDS progresses, individuals become less able to ward off infections and get sick from things that a normal healthy immune system would easily fight off.  Health officials initially thought the disease was limited to homosexual men living in large metropolitan areas. But, they quickly discovered that both hemophiliacs and heterosexual intravenous drug users were also being infected. A French physician, Luc Montagnier, initially discovered that the underlying cause of AIDS was a retrovirus, a virus capable of reprogramming the body with a defective genetic code. This was a major breakthrough, allowing other scientists to develop treatments, and AZT became the first drug approved to fight AIDS.

Belleau had developed a chemical structure to fight against AIDS, and the trio took this compound and refined it. The result was the drug 3TC. At the time, AZT was the only available treatment for AIDS. But, over 90 percent of those patients treated with AZT developed a resistance to it within the first year of treatment - and experienced significant damage to their immune systems. Dionne and his colleagues wanted to develop a treatment that would fight AIDS, but avoid the side effects of severe pain, bone marrow destruction, and anemia (low amounts of red blood cells). They succeeded with the unique 3TC treatment. 3TC works by preventing the HIV retrovirus from altering the cell's genetic structure. This retards the spread of AIDS within the body, as new cells are no longer susceptible. Though 3TC doesn't repair the damage already done to existing cells, it offers widespread protection to the remaining uninfected cells. Best of all, it achieves this without the debilitating side effects patients had previously experienced. 3TC proved to be even more effective when combined with lower doses of AZT. This combination was the first "cocktail" treatment to fight against AIDS.

Introduction by Tim Anderson

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