Forty years after the discovery of HIV, AFP looks at how far we have come in fighting a deadly virus that was once shrouded in fear and shame but is now treated as a manageable chronic condition.- 1981: First alert -In June 1981, US epidemiologists report five cases of a rare form of pneumonia in gay men in California.It is the first alert about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), still unknown and unnamed. Doctors then identify "opportunistic infections" among intravenous drug users and in haemophiliacs and Haitian residents in the United States.