White became extremely ill with pneumonia in December 1984. On December 17, 1984, during a lung biopsy, White was diagnosed with AIDS. By this time the scientific community had studied the epidemic in great detail. Earlier that year, HTLV-III was identified and isolated by American research scientists, confirming the work done by French research scientists who called it LAV. A lengthy public battle to determine who should be recognized as the discoverer of the human retrovirus delayed development of a test for what would later be called HIV. White had apparently received a contaminated treatment of factor VIII that was infected with HIV, as did thousands of other Americans with hemophilia and hemophiliacs around the world. At that time, because the retrovirus that causes AIDS had been recently identified, much of the pooled factor VIII concentrate was tainted. Blood banks and pharmaceutical companies dismissed calls by the CDC to use a hepatitis B test as a surrogate until an HIV test could be developed. Late plasma products were screened and heat-treated to deactivate both HIV and hepatitis. Among hemophiliacs treated with blood-clotting factors between 1979 and 1984, nearly 90% became infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C. At the time of his diagnosis, his T-cell count had dropped to 25 per millimetre cubed (a healthy individual without HIV will have around 500–1200; below 200 is AIDS-defining in the US). Doctors predicted Ryan White had only six months to live. After the diagnosis, White was too ill to return to school, but by early-1985 he began to feel better. His mother asked if he could return to school, but was told by school officials that he could not. On June 30, 1985, a formal request to permit re-admittance to school was denied by Western School Corporation superintendent James O. Smith, sparking an administrative appeal process that lasted for eight months. Battle with schools Western Middle School in Russiaville faced enormous pressure from many parents and faculty to prevent White from returning to the campus after his diagnosis became widely known. In the school of 360 total students, 117 parents and 50 teachers signed a petition encouraging school leaders to ban White from school. Due to the widespread fear and ignorance of AIDS, the principal and later the school board succumbed to this pressure and prohibited re-admittance. The White family filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision. The Whites initially filed suit