French scientist Luc Montagnier, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), speaks during a press conference at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, in July 2002. Barcelona | AP Yonhap News
French virologist Luc Montagnier, who shared the Nobel Prize for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, has died. He died at the age of 89.
AFP and Associated Press reported on the 10th (local time) that Montagnier died on the 8th at the Paris American Hospital in Neuy-sur-Seine, near Paris, while his children were watching.
After receiving a degree from the University of Poitiers, Montagnier joined the French National Institute of Science (CNRS) in 1960, and in 1972 became head of the Department of Virology at the Pasteur Institute. He and his colleague, Dr. François Barré Sinouchi, succeeded in discovering a retrovirus believed to be the cause of AIDS in the early 1980s, when the number of people living with AIDS was soaring and they had little chance of surviving. The virus later confirmed a direct link to AIDS in a study by the National Institutes of Health. Montagnier was jointly awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr.
The medical community was able to accelerate the development of AIDS virus testing and treatment with the research of Montagnier and Varecinusi. This made it possible for AIDS patients to live their daily lives. Montagnier also established a foundation to support the establishment of AIDS Research and Prevention Centers to help scientists returning to countries affected by AIDS, such as Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon.
But there were many ups and downs in his life. When Montagnier discovered the virus that caused AIDS, Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Institutes of Health claimed to have found the same virus. A dispute between two prominent scientists has become a topic of discussion. The medical community concluded that Montagnier discovered the virus and Gallo confirmed the link between the virus and AIDS. The name of the AIDS virus, which was called HTLV-III in the United States and LAV in France, was unified as HIV.
Since the late 2000s, Montagnier has been shunned by the scientific community by making claims that lack scientific evidence and taking a stand against vaccines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was argued that the COVID-19 virus did not occur naturally, but was made in a laboratory, and that the COVID-19 vaccine was responsible for the emergence of a mutated virus. Opponents of vaccinations issued statements of condolences immediately upon the news of his death.
French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Montagnier for his contribution to the fight against HIV and AIDS and expressed his condolences to the family of the deceased. He did not comment on his recently controversial scientific position.