The media reports that 70%-90% of hemophiliacs in the U.S. are infected with AIDS.

NHF's MASAC recommends use of heat-treated plasma concentrates in order to minimize the risk of transmission of HIV-I (human immunodefficiency virus).

CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) reported 72% of severe asymptomatic hemophiliac had antibody to LAV antigens using the Western blot test. This virus is now known to be a member of the HIV-1 group of viruses.

A research team led by Dr. Jay Toole successfully cloned the human gene for the production of the blood-clotting protein Factor VIII.

In 1984, Hemophilia of Michigan is appointed the federal Regional Core Center for Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana HTCs.

August 25–26, 1983: Hyland Therapeutics and ARC announce recall of lots (two each) from identified donors who were confirmed to have died of AIDS. NHF reaffirms its recommendation that patients maintain use of concentrate or cryoprecipitate as prescribed by their physicians.

On July 19, 1983, the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) was devoted to the question of what was known about AIDS and its transmission through the blood supply, and what BPAC should recommend to the FDA concerning recalls (FDA, BPAC 1983; see also Chapter 3).

The National Hemophilia Foundation seems to have been the only participant at the BPAC meeting that supported the automatic recall of any product that was found to have been manufactured with plasma taken from a person subsequently determined to have AIDS or to have had characteristics strongly suggestive of AIDS. Indeed, the BPAC recall agenda seems to have been set by an NHF Medical and Scientific Advisory Council (MASAC) position favoring automatic recall (FDA, BPAC 1983). However, that position had been formulated by the NHF prior to the BPAC meeting. At the meeting itself, NHF medical director, Louis Aledort, first stated the NHF position, then followed by stating his personal view that the NHF position had been formulated prior to the consideration of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association assertions concerning the possible impact of automatic recalls on the availability of AHF concentrate (FDA, BPAC 1983).

NHF urges Congress to provide additional funding to support AIDS research.

DDAVP is declared by researchers to be a useful alternative to blood components in moderate hemophilia A and Von Willebrand disease.

A retrovirus, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is identified in 1983 as the pathogen responsible for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).