AIDS History and Treatment In 1981 a man in Los Angeles was diagnosed as having a rare form of pneumonia, known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. He had a very low number of T-4 helper cells, and died soon after. The doctors were puzzled at the time, but they would later discover that this was one of the first cases of a disease that would soon plague millions of patients. This plague eventually became commonly known as the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. AIDS is now defined as "a specific group of diseases or conditions that result from suppression of the immune system related to infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)" (Encarta). When someone is i