HIV is the cause of AIDS. There is overwhelming evidence that this is true. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a disorder of the immune system characterized by damage to, and loss of, a major subset of lymphocytes (white blood cells) the CD4 T cell. The disease first appeared in the 1980s and HIV-1, present in all patients, was discovered in 1983. The epidemiology of HIV and AIDS are linked, with HIV-1 appearing first in a population and death from AIDS later. We understand why there is a delay from HIV infection to overt disease. We know why CD4 T cells are infected and damaged by the virus. We know that if we control HIV with antiviral drugs, we can restore life expectancy of HIV infected patients to near normal. The drugs can also be used to prevent infection in those at very high risk. Not only does the knowledge of how HIV causes AIDS enable doctors to prevent that happening, but also it gives us a target for design of vaccines that will prevent infection.
Andrew McMichael qualified in Medicine in 1968 and obtained a PhD in Immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research. Since 1987 he has studied the T cell response to HIV, with a particular interest in virus escape from T cell recognition. For the last five years he has focussed on HIV vaccines; his group have designed and tested two candidate HIV vaccines in phase I clinical trials.
He is Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford University and is Honorary Director of the Medical Research Council Human Immunology Unit. He was knighted in 2008 for services to medical sciences.
January 20th, 2012 
glasgowskeptic 
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