Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

HIV has infected 88 million people since 1981. Meet the woman who discovered the virus.

In 1983, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi co-discovered HIV.

Virus behind a pandemic that would kill over 40 million people.

At the time, AIDS was still seen as a “gay plague.”

There was no name for the virus.

No treatments.

Just fear, death, and stigma.

Within weeks of receiving patient samples, Françoise detected a new retrovirus at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Her discovery laid the foundation for the first HIV tests and for life-saving treatments like AZT, protease inhibitors, and the antiretroviral therapy (ART) that would go on to save millions.

But credit? That went elsewhere.

While the media spotlight went to her male colleague, Luc Montagnier, Françoise kept publishing.

It wasn’t until 2008 (25 years later) that she finally received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

And she didn’t stop there.

Françoise became one of the most politically outspoken scientists in the HIV/AIDS fight.

She launched community-based research programs in Africa and Asia, worked directly with patients in Cambodia and Vietnam, and chaired the International AIDS Society from 2012 to 2014.

In France, she advised multiple presidents on global health and didn’t hesitate to call out pharmaceutical companies like Abbott, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline for blocking access to treatments.

She’s received dozens of honors.

From the Légion d'honneur to honorary doctorates around the world.

But still says her greatest achievement is earning the trust of people living with HIV.

Her message? You can’t do science in a vacuum. You have to listen. You have to act.

Everyone knows what HIV is. But did you ever learn the name of the woman who first found it?