It is decided that what is called LAV and HTLV-III are actually the "same virus". An international committee rules that both names should be dropped and replaced by the new name, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The new name of this "virus" no doubt helps to solidify the belief that it causes immune deficiency. At the second international AIDS conference in Paris, there are preliminary reports of the use of the drug Zidovudine (AZT) for the treatment of AIDS.

Writing in the Gay Community News, journalist and survey researcher John Lauritsen questions HIV as the cause of AIDS. Lauritsen asserts that HIV fails scientific tests which are necessary to establish it as the cause of a disease and concludes that "recreational drug" use can explain most of the AIDS cases during or before 1986.

The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes an "authoritative collection" of articles on AIDS written in recent years. The section on AIDS causation contains 56 references. Only one mentions non-viral factors as a possible cause of AIDS.

Dr. Peter Duesberg is elected into the elete National Academy of Sciences for his work on cancer and retroviruses. The National Institutes awards him an Outstanding Investigator Award, the most prestigious grant for high achievers. Dr. Duesberg is regarded by scientists around the world (including Gallo) as an "extraordinary" scientist, co-discovering, and being the first to map, the structure of cancer oncogenes.