The Battle Against AIDS AIDS is the final, life-threatening stage of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The name refers to the fact that HIV severely damages the patient's disease-fighting immune system. Cases of AIDS were first identified in 1981 in the United States, but researchers have traced cases to as early as 1959. Millions of AIDS cases have been diagnosed worldwide. AIDS is caused by two viruses that belong to a group called retroviruses. The AIDS virus was isolated by researchers in France in 1983