The Origin of Aids

      In the early 1980s health professionals were finding young previously healthy men were dying of uncertain causes. By 1982, the disease responsible for taking the lives of those young men was found. The CDC named the new disease acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS (WebMD, 2009). 30 years later, we are still short on answers for the AIDS epidemic. Learning where the disease originated from could provide us with movement towards a cure in the future, but that answer is still much debated.

      After decades of research, it is largely accepted that the AIDS virus originated from chimpanzees. The theory is that HIV-1, the most deadly strain of HIV in humans, is a descendent of the SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) which is found in chimpanzees (Avert, n.d.). However, theories as to how the virus crossed species are still up for debate.

      One theory, the ‘hunter’ theory, is that a hunter killed a chimp and either ate it or was contaminated by the infected blood from the chimp entering a wound of the hunter while butchering it (Avert, n.d.). The oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory suggests that HIV was spread through the use of the oral polio vaccine called Chat, which was given to people in Belgian, Congo. According to Avert, “to be reproduced, live polio vaccine needs to be cultivated in living tissue, and Hooper’s belief is that Chat was grown in kidney cells taken from local chimps infected with SIV,” (n.d.). The contaminated needle theory suggests that single syringes being used in multiple people in the 50s spread the virus. There is also the conspiracy theory which leans towards the idea that HIV is a man-made virus manufactured as a form of biological warfare to wipe out African American and homosexual people.

      Although there are a number of theories as to how the HIV virus crossed species it is widely accepted that it did in fact originate from SIV in primates.

Sources

Avert. “The Origin of AIDS and HIV and the First Cases of AIDS.” n.d. Web. Retrieved from http://www.avert.org/origin-aids-hiv.htm

WebMD. (2009) “AIDS Retrospective Slideshow: A Pictorial Timeline of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic.” December 1, 2009. Web. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/slideshow-aids-retrospective