What is the origin of the AIDS virus?
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AIDS is thought to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa during the 20th century. It got into humans by a similar route as some classic Old World infectious diseases. The ancient Old World was the incubator of many diseases like smallpox because it had large human populations in close association with large animal populations, especially those that lived in herds. AIDS followed a similar path.\n\nThe requirements were:\n\na large human population, \na large nearby population of a host animal, \na pathogen that eventually mutates to spread from animal to human, \ninteraction between the species to transmit enough of it to humans to establish a human foothold, which may take millions of individual exposures, \na mutation of same pathogen that can spread from human to human, \nsome method that allows the pathogen to disperse widely so it does not "burn out" in a local population of humans. \nSuch requirements existed in the remote past with smallpox, and also with the 20th century Spanish Flu (which actually originated in the New World at Ft. Riley, Kansas). Such conditions MAY eventually be replicated with the bird flu.\n\nAIDS viruses originated in primates as far as is known. Possible ways for this virus to have originally infected humans include the hunting and eating of the original primate species; a bite would be another possible route. The viruses arguably would have remained rare medical curiosities but for 20th century conditions such promiscuity, widespread use of hypodemic needles in medicine and drug addiction, tourist travel, vast economic growth, and transportation improvements such as railroads, air travel, trucking, and shipping. These social and economic changes allowed the viruses to spread worldwide and infect millions of people.\n\nAnother currently controversial possibility for the origin of HIV/AIDS was discussed in a 1992 Rolling Stone magazine article by freelance journalist Tom Curtis. He put forward the theory that AIDS was inadvertantly caused in the late 1950s in the Belgian Congo by Hilary Koprowski's research into a polio vaccine. Although subsequently retracted due to libel issues surrounding its claims, the Rolling Stone article motivated another freelance journalist, Edward Hooper, to probe more deeply into this subject. Hooper's research resulted in his publishing a 1999 book, The River, in which he alleged that an experimental oral polio vaccine prepared using chimpanzee kidney tissue was the route through which SIV crossed into humans to become HIV, and thus to start the human AIDS pandemic, some time between 1957 to 1959. See OPV AIDS hypothesis.\n\nIt appears that either HIV existed in very low levels in the United States in periods prior to 1981, or it may have gone extinct in the United States at times, with the present infection established in the USA about 1976. HIV in Africa likewise was at first at levels too low to be noticed. The spread of the infection in both America and Africa was assisted by changing sexual mores related to rapid urbanization and economic change in the late 20th century. In the United States and Africa HIV was at first mostly found only in residents of large cities. The new urban lifestyle fostered greater sexual activity as it often included the breaking of old family and tribal bonds, as indivduals moved to start new lives far from their points of origin. The infection is now more widespread in rural areas, and has appeared in regions such as China and India, where it was previously not evident.\n\nTwo species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more virulent and more easily transmitted. HIV-1 is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world, while HIV-2 is less easily transmitted and is largely confined to West Africa. [1]\n\nBoth species of the virus (HIV-1 and HIV-2) are believed to have originated in West-Central Africa and jumped species (zoonosis) from primates to humans. HIV-1 evolved from a Simian Immuno
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a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which kills or impairs cells of the immune system and progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. HIV is most commonly spread by sexual contact with an infected partner. The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of an HIV infection.
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Apparently the human version of AIDS came from handling infected animals, though the infection doesn't have the same effect on the animals that it has on humans.
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There are several theories to this, and none of them are proven. The most commonly accepted theory is that of the 'hunter'. In this scenario, SIVcpz (like HIV, but the S stands for Simian) was transferred to humans as a result of chimps being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunter. Normally the hunter's body would have fought off SIV, but on a few occasions it adapted itself within its new human host and become HIV-1. \n\nIf you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact your local department of public health. Free testing is available, as well as risk reduction, and post-infection counseling.
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Hi!!\n\n"HIV is the virus that may causes AIDS. HIV belongs to a subset of viruses called retroviruses or slow virus. \n\n\n \nThis is because it is a progressive disease. HIV is entered through the body through the mucous membranes or thru blood to blood contact. \n\n\nOnce you get the virus it slowly begins to attack the immune system, killing off healthy immune system cells. The deterioration and destruction of immune function leads to AIDS. \n\n\nAIDS is the final stage of the HIV infection. A person is said to have AIDS when the cd4 counts drops below 200 and or a person has 1 or more opportunistic infections. The OIs, as they are called, are normal infections that a healthy person would be able to fight off. \n\n\nThe four stages of the HIV infection are as follows: \n\n\n1) The period following infection is called the window. It is called this because it reflect the window of time between infection and that which antibodies are devlop in a person. The HIV test looks for antibodies not the virus. \n\n\n2) The second stage is called seroconversion. This is when the body begins to develop lots of antibodies to fight off the virus in the body. During this period a person may have flu like sympton. Also during this period is said to be very infectious. \n\n\n3) The third stage is called symptom free. During this period a person may have no sympton what so ever. This can last any where from 6 months to well over ten years. The medical world is not sure why some people are living sympton free for so long. \n\n\n4) The final stage is called AIDS. This is the period when TCELL drop to below 200 and the OI"S are present. \n\n\nSo, as we see, HIV is a infection that will leads to AIDS. \n\n\nThe body immune system is slowly being attacked until it is destroyed and can't fight off infections. Once this happens a person is said to have AIDS. AIDS is the final stage."\n\nI hope the above answers your question.\n\n>>> Naveen Kumar
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click here:http://www.bestandworst.com/r/?id=4429\nhttp://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Where%20AIDS%20Came%20From.htm\nhttp://www.alldeaf.com/topic-debates/25274-where-did-aids-come.html\nhttp://beatnikboy.tripod.com/aids.htm\nhttp://www.natap.org/2002/9retro/day0.htm\n\n\nThe origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what it the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?\n\nThe first recognised cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (more about this period can be found on our history page). A number of gay men in New York and San Francisco suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome. The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to the connection (and indeed remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV does cause AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out How, When and Where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.
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HIV originated in primates as far as is known. Possible ways for this virus to have originally infected humans include the hunting and eating of the original primate species; a bite would be another possible route. From this point, the virus ultimately spread to the rest of the world.\n\nIf a cross species jump is indeed the origin of HIV then the following conditions would most likely be required:\na large human population, \na large nearby population of a host animal, \na pathogen that eventually mutates to spread from animal to human, \ninteraction between the species to transmit enough of it to humans to establish a human foothold, which may take millions of individual exposures, \na mutation of same pathogen that can spread from human to human, \nsome method that allows the pathogen to disperse widely so it does not "burn out" in a local population of humans. \n\nSuch requirements existed in the remote past with smallpox, and also with the 20th century Spanish Flu.\n\nTwo species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more virulent and more easily transmitted. HIV-1 is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world, while HIV-2 is less easily transmitted and is largely confined to West Africa.\n\nBoth species of the virus (HIV-1 and HIV-2) are believed to have originated in West-Central Africa and jumped species (zoonosis) from primates to humans. HIV-1 evolved from a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIVcpz) found in the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes. DNA sequencing indicates that HIV-1 (group M) entered the human population in the early 20th century, probably sometime between 1915 and 1941. HIV-2 crossed species from a different strain of SIV, this one found in sooty mangabeys (an Old World monkey) of Guinea-Bissau.
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*Pondering awhile* The official date for the beginning of the AIDS epidemic is marked as June 18, 1981, when the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported a cluster of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (now classified as Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia) in five gay men in Los Angeles. Originally dubbed GRID, or Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, health authorities soon realized that nearly half of the people identified with the syndrome were not gay. In 1982, the CDC introduced the term AIDS to describe the newly recognized syndrome.\nThree of the earliest known instances of HIV infection are as follows:\n   1. A plasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.\n   2. HIV found in tissue samples from an American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969.\n   3. HIV found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976.\nTwo species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more virulent and more easily transmitted. HIV-1 is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world, while HIV-2 is less easily transmitted and is largely confined to West Africa. Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are of primate origin. The origin of HIV-1 is the Central Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes). The origin of HIV-2 has been established to be the Sooty Mangabey (Cercocebus atys), an Old World monkey of Guinea Bissau, Gabon, and Cameroon.\n\nOne currently controversial possibility for the origin of HIV/AIDS was discussed in a 1992 Rolling Stone magazine article by freelance journalist Tom Curtis. He put forward the theory that AIDS was inadvertantly caused in the late 1950's in the Belgian Congo by Hilary Koprowski's research into a polio vaccine. Although subsequently retracted due to libel issues surrounding its claims, the Rolling Stone article encouraged another freelance journalist, Edward Hooper, to travel to Africa for 7 years of research into this subject. Hooper's research resulted in his publishing a 1999 book, The River, in which he alleged that an experimental oral polio vaccine prepared using chimpanzee kidney tissue was the route through which SIV mutated into HIV and started the human AIDS epidemic, some time between 1957 to 1959.\nFor quite a bit more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aids#Origin_of_HIV.2FAIDS
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In humans, they believe the first case to go back to the 1950s.  One theory claims that HIV spread from primates to humans in Africa by people eating uncooked/undercooked primate meat.*  \n\nThree of the earliest known instances of HIV infection are as follows:\n\n   1. A plasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.\n   2. HIV found in tissue samples from an American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969.\n   3. HIV found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976.\n\n\n\n*Diseases such as HIV spreading from animal to human is rare.  Scientists speculate that this was possible only because of a mutated form of HIV in the primates.
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it all started when God created the heavens and the earth.  He didnt want people to have sex between species so he made the aids virus.  well some genius in africa thought it would be fun to have sex with a monkey.  he got aids, then he went and spread it to others. now it is a Pandemic
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Some animals can suffer from a similar viral-induced immunodeficiency syndrome. While not caused by the exact same virus, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infects and causes a similar syndrome in domestic cats and there are forms of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), one of which causes an immunodeficiency syndrome in chimpanzees, another which infects other non-chimpanzee primates that are closely related to HIV. These monkey viruses are quite closely related to HIV structurally and genetically and there have been studies suggesting that the first HIV infections arose from a group of hunter gatherer tribes in Africa that killed chimpanzees for their meat.
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The first case of aids to enter the US was by a male homosexual flight attendant.   The first aids cases were from natives having sex with monkeys.
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AIDS is not a virus....HIV is a virus that is known to cause AIDS....You can't have AIDS, if you don't have HIV.  A person may go a long time know they have HIV and having no symptoms.  This does not mean that they won't later have symptoms or that they won't get AIDS.  She could possibly harm people she has sex with.  This is a weird question.  Why are you asking this?
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There is a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). It causes an infectious disease in domestic cats and cheetahs similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV infection) in humans.\nhttp://animalhealthchannel.com/fiv/
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WHERE?\nThe question of exactly where the transfer took place, and where the 'epidemic' officially first developed has always been controversial. Some have suggested that it is dangerous to even try to find out, as AIDS has frequently been blamed on an innocent person or group of individuals in the past. However, scientists remain keen to find the true origin of HIV, as most agree it is important to understand the virus and its epidemiology in order to fight it.\n\nSo did it definitely come from Africa?\nGiven the evidence we have already looked at, it is likely that Africa was indeed the continent where the transfer of HIV to humans first occurred (monkeys from Asia and South America have never been found to have SIVs that could cause HIV in humans). However, who exactly spread the virus from Africa , to America and beyond remains a mystery. It is quite possible that separate 'pockets' of the virus could have been developing in a number of different countries years before the first cases were ever officially identified, making it virtually impossible to trace one single source.
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yes it is. i don't remember any details by i heard a scientific report a few years back that basically said that the HIV virus needs the help of a vitamin (i forget which) to get into your cells. if i remember my biochemistry correctly, a virus is only a sort of capsule full of DNA. what it does is it attaches to a cell and feeds it the DNA, so that the cell turns into a virus factory, instead of continuing to fulfil its original function. if the cells aren't doing what they're suppose to be doing, you get sick and eventually die. \nso the virus can't actually do any harm until it can get into the cells and this vitamin opens a doorway. unfortunately, it is one of the vitamins the human body produces naturally. however, there are some people who do not produce this vitamin. they have some helth issues because of it, but because they don't have this vitamin in their body, the HIV virus cannot get into the cells and so they are immune to AIDS. they do however, carry the virus around with them and so they can pass it on.
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Aids is a disease that is spread through intercourse with different partners during sexual acts, or sharing dirty infected needles for drug useage, or even from bodily fluids being exchanged... \n\nSource(s):\nHIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid or breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of: (anal or vaginal) sex; blood transfusion; contaminated needles; exchange between mother and infant during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding; or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aids...