hiv aids

[che]

Where doe's this tragic disease originate from? I heard (how shall I put) extravagant claims to it origins from bizarre claims that it originate from Africa with some individual acquiring after having sex with a ape and then transmitted it others...To conspiracy theorists' claims that it was created by the US Government to (evilly) wipe out the poor, homosexuals & drug addicts from the population

[Buenchico]

I don't suppose that anyone knows exactly where the disease started but, having read many articles (in serious scientific magazines) and watched a good many responsible documentaries, I feel fairly confident in saying that:

1. The first recorded cases of HIV/AIDS were on the African continent ; and

2. The disease was known in (other) species of ape well before it was transferred to man.

So, in general, I think that much of your first suggestion is correct. The transition between species, however, didn't necessarily have to come about through sexual contact. HIV can be transferred by the contact of any bodily fluids e.g. a sick monkey might have bitten a man and infected him that way or a hunter might have shot a monkey for food and come into contact with its blood when skinning it.

Chris

[Peter Pedant]

these are old stories from ten years ago, when the cost of the epidemic looked enormous,

and people were looking for 'good' reasons not to fund it.

 

Even if someone admits he did have sex with an ape - it seems diffciult to prove that scientifically it jumped species at that time, and from that act. I know of no admission

Now, if they think it was present originally in apes - old world of course being Africa - and they wanted a method of explaining why it jumped species, then sex rather than skin abrasion certainly attracts the press corps.

I;d heard pigs actually.....

 

Randy Shilts - 'And the band played on' is a good read and not about apes and sex and patient zero but still very good about HIV. I think Shilts says patient zero is a french canadian air steward. Anyway the crowd got hold of his name and went around and burnt his parents' house down. C'est la vie, as they say.

[jake-the-peg]

I think the really interesting question is where did apes get it from - I've seen very little on this.In other words what did it evolve from.

I know aids has an incredibly high mutation rate orders of magnitude greater than flu. I guess this may mean we'll never know what it origionally evolved from

[jimmer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS

 

see history AND origin.

jim