Several thousand scientific papers have been published on HIV and AIDS. A search in Pubmed for 'HIV' in May 2007 retrieved 210,201 references. A search for 'AIDS' found 138,878 references. While Pubmed is public and anyone can access it, the overwhelming amount of information in so many papers is a daunting task to read and understand. In addition, many of the scientific journals require a subscription to access full articles. And so, we present here some of the most important scientific papers pertaining to HIV and AIDS from peer-reviewed journals.

The Discovery of HIV and its relationship to AIDS

• Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (1983)
• Frequent detection and isolation of cytopathic retroviruses (HTLV-III) from patients with AIDS and at risk for AIDS (1984)
• The Discovery of HIV as the Cause of AIDS
• The importance of epidemiology in the early days of the HIV epidemic

Natural History Studies

AIDS denialists often falsely claim that there are no studies showing that untreated people with HIV face a vastly elevated risk of immunodeficiency, opportunistic infections and death. These are just a few recent examples of the natural history studies in PubMed that compare outcomes among untreated people with HIV infection to those among their uninfected counterparts.

• Survival from HIV-1 seroconversion in Southern Africa: a retrospective cohort study in nearly 2000 gold-miners over 10 years of follow-up
• A retrospective cohort study on the natural history of human immunodeficiency virus among formal plasma donors in central China
• The natural course of disease following HIV-1 infection in dar es salaam, Tanzania: a study among hotel workers relating clinical events to CD4 T-lymphocyte counts
• The natural history of HIV-1 infection in young Thai men after seroconversion
• The natural history of human immunodeficiency virus infection among adults in Mumbai
• Survival of persons with and without HIV infection in Denmark, 1995-2005
• Mortality rates and causes of death among all HIV-positive individuals with hemophilia in Canada over 21 years of follow-up
• Mortality associated with HIV infection in rural Rakai District, Uganda

HIV and the Immune System

• What our work means: Predictive value of plasma HIV RNA level on rate of CD4 T-cell decline in untreated HIV infection

Recreational Drug Use

• Recreational drug use and T lymphocyte subpopulations in HIV-uninfected and HIV-infected men

HIV Transmission Studies

• Sexual Transmission

  These studies represent just some of the literature conclusively demonstrating the heterosexual transmission of HIV. Many more can be found by following the links to the PubMed abstracts for these studies and clicking on "related links" to the right of the abstract. Several of these studies include larger cohorts of discordant couples with more comprehensive follow-up than the Californian study by Nancy Padian that AIDS denialists frequently willfully misrepresent.

  There are also many studies demonstrating homosexual transmission of HIV; however, for reasons that are unclear, AIDS denialists rarely make declarations denying that the virus can be homosexually transmitted.

  • Amplified transmission of HIV-1: comparison of HIV-1 concentrations in semen and blood during acute and chronic infection
  • Heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in northern California: results from a ten-year study
  • Highly efficient HIV transmission to young women in South Africa
  • A longitudinal study of human immunodeficiency virus transmission by heterosexual partners. European Study Group on Heterosexual Transmission of HIV
  • Viral load and heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1. Rakai Project Study Group
  • Virus load and risk of heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus by men with hemophilia. The Multicenter Hemophilia Cohort Study
  • Virologic and immunologic determinants of heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in Africa
  • Probability of HIV-1 transmission per coital act in monogamous, heterosexual, HIV-1-discordant couples in Rakai, Uganda
  • Human immunodeficiency virus acquisition associated with genital ulcer disease and herpes simplex virus type 2 infection: a nested case-control study in Rakai, Uganda
  • Heterosexual spread of human immunodeficiency virus in Edinburgh
  • Transmission of HIV to heterosexual partners of infected men and women
  • Risk factors for male to female transmission of HIV. European Study Group
  • Evidence of marked sexual behavior change associated with low HIV-1 seroconversion in 149 married couples with discordant HIV-1 serostatus: experience at an HIV counselling center in Zaire
  • Effect of serotesting with counselling on condom use and seroconversion among HIV discordant couples in Africa
  • Comparison of female to male and male to female transmission of HIV in 563 stable couples. European Study Group on Heterosexual Transmission of HIV
  • Man-to-woman sexual transmission of HIV: longitudinal study of 343 steady partners of infected men
  • Male-to-female transmission of HIV in a cohort of hemophiliacs--frequency, risk factors and effect of sexual counseling
  • The efficiency of male-to-female and female-to-male sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus: a study of 730 stable couples. Italian Study Group on HIV Heterosexual Transmission
  • HIV infection among female partners of seropositive men in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro Heterosexual Study Group
  • HIV status of female sex partners of men reactive to HIV-1, HIV-2 or both viruses in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
  • Heterosexual transmission of HIV in Haiti
  • Biological correlates of HIV-1 heterosexual transmission
  • Rates of HIV-1 transmission within marriage in rural Uganda in relation to the HIV sero-status of the partners
  • Heterosexual transmission of HIV-1 is associated with high plasma viral load levels and a positive viral isolation in the infected partner
  • The Effectiveness of Condoms in Reducing Heterosexual Transmission of HIV
  • Mismatched human leukocyte antigen alleles protect against heterosexual HIV transmission
  • Molecular epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 transmission in a heterosexual cohort of discordant couples in Zambia
  • Incidence of HIV infection in stable sexual partnerships: a retrospective cohort study of 1802 couples in Mwanza Region, Tanzania
  • Male viral load and heterosexual transmission of HIV-1 subtype E in northern Thailand
  • Heterosexual HIV-1 transmission and viral load in hemophilic patients
  • Role of viral load in heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 by blood transfusion recipients. Transfusion Safety Study Group
  • The social dynamics of HIV transmission as reflected through discordant couples in rural Uganda
  • Antiretroviral treatment of men infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reduces the incidence of heterosexual transmission. Italian Study Group on HIV Heterosexual Transmission
  • Documented male-to-female transmission of HIV-1 after minimal vaginal exposure in the absence of other cofactors for infection
  • Probability of heterosexual transmission of HIV: relationship to the number of unprotected sexual contacts. European Study Group in Heterosexual Transmission of HIV
  • Molecular analysis of HIV strains from a cluster of worker infections in the adult film industry, Los Angeles 2004.
  • Doncaster: the public health response to a local cluster of heterosexually acquired HIV infection
  • Molecular analysis in support of an investigation of a cluster of HIV-1-infected women
  • Full-length genome sequencing of HIV type 1 group O viruses isolated from a heterosexual transmission cluster in Senegal
  • From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Cluster of HIV-Positive Young Women-New York, 1997-1998

• Mother-To-Child Transmission (MTCT)

  • Single-dose perinatal nevirapine plus standard zidovudine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Thailand
  • Mortality in HIV-Infected and Uninfected Children of HIV-Infected and Uninfected Mothers in Rural Uganda.

• Other

  • High Rates of Forward Transmission Events after Acute/Early HIV-1 Infection

Drug Therapy and Related Studies

• Improved survival in HIV-infected persons: consequences and perspectives
• Continued improvement in survival among HIV-infected individuals with newer forms of highly active antiretroviral therapy
• Systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence for increasing numbers of drugs in antiretroviral combination therapy
• Long-term effectiveness of potent antiretroviral therapy in preventing AIDS and death: a prospective cohort study
• Declining Morbidity and Mortality among Patients with Advanced Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
• Decline in the AIDS and death rates in the EuroSIDA study: an observational study
• Survival of persons with and without HIV infection in Denmark, 1995-2005
• Mortality rates and causes of death among all HIV-positive individuals with hemophilia in Canada over 21 years of follow-up
• The efficacy of azidothymidine (AZT) in the treatment of patients with AIDS and AIDS-related complex. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
• The safety and efficacy of zidovudine (AZT) in the treatment of subjects with mildly symptomatic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial The AIDS Clinical Trials Group
• MRC/ANRS randomised double-blind controlled trial of immediate and deferred zidovudine in symptom-free HIV infection
• Randomised trial of addition of lamivudine or lamivudine plus loviride to zidovudine-containing regimens for patients with HIV-1 infection
• Single-dose perinatal nevirapine plus standard zidovudine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV-1 in Thailand
• Survival rate and risk factors of mortality among HIV/tuberculosis-coinfected patients with and without antiretroviral therapy
• Mortality and Virological Outcomes of 2105 HIV-infected Children Receiving ART in Soweto, South Africa