History and Introduction:
There are different myths and views in relation to the origin of HIV. Some researchers believe that HIV-1 and HIV-2 have originated in non-human primates, particularly from chimpanzee and monkeys, in West-central Africa and were transferred to humans in the early 20th century. (UNAIDS, 2007)
Another school-of-thought says that people who went for hunting acquired SIV. After, several individual to individual transmissions of SIV, its mutant form, HIV appeared. Some genetic studies of the virus suggest that the most recent common ancestor of the HIV-1 M group dates back to 1910, linking HIV epidemic to the increasing population of colonial African cities at that time. The spread of prostitution and unsafe sex also made their contribution. Another alternative view sheds the light on, the unsafe medical practices in Africa after World War II, unsterile reuse of single use syringes during mass vaccination, being the major vector of virus. (Sharp, 2001; Kalish, 2005)
In 1981 in the USA, first time AIDS was observed in the clinic. Initially, homosexuals and injecting drug users were reported to have compromised immune system with symptoms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). (Gottlieb, 2006)
Earlier the CDC did not had any specific name for the disease and they would refer to it by the diseases and symptoms associated with it, such as, lymphoadenopathy and opportunistic infections. It was also named “the 4H disease”, in accordance with the type of people (Haitians, homosexuals, hemophiliacs and heroin users) it prevailed in. Finally, in 1982 the CDC started referring to the disease as AIDS. (CDC, 1982; Kher, 1982)
In 1983, research groups led by Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier independently declared tha...
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...ochondrial DNA: evidence supporting the DNA pol gamma hypothesis. AIDS 20: 675-684, 2006
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16. UNAIDS.org. (2013). Fact Sheet. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
...cused of being patient zero and the one who purposely and knowingly infected as many as 250 men a year on both sides of the Atlantic was nothing but one of the many wrong hypotheses made in this process of finding the origin of the HIV/AIDS virus. The fact that he had single handedly started the epidemic, today is largely discredited by most scientists. With time computer models estimated that the first human infection occurred around 1930, give or take 20 years. The earliest known infection of an identified human dates back to 1959 which was found in a plasma sample taken from an adult male living in the Belgian Congo. Many assumptions and hypotheses were made and a human eating a chimp seems to be the likeliest form the infection occurred.
The CDC published a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on June 5, 1981 describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), accompanied by other unusual infections, in five young, previously healthy, gay men in Los Angeles. By the time the report was published, two of the men had died. This marked the first official reporting of what is now known as the AIDS epidemic. It wasn’t until September 24, 1982, however, when the CDC used the term AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) for the first time. The San Francisco Chronicle covered the story the very next day; just days later, Doctors around the nation swarmed the CDC with reports of similar cases. It wasn’t until November of 1985, after the epidemic had claimed
AIDS/HIV was first recognized as a new disease in the US when clinicians in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco began to see young, homosexual men with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and Kaposi 's sarcoma (KS), unusual diseases for young adults which were not known to be immunosuppressed. These discoveries led to increased fear throughout the US since many people didn’t know what caused AIDS, how it could be contracted, or even what to call it.
“In 1980, a life-threatening human immune dysfunction of unknown origins was noticed in Central Africa, Europe, and the United States” (Poindexter, 2007, p. 6). In 1981, in the United States, the disease was first reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Unlike numerous other viruses, the human body cannot rid itself of HIV. That means that once you have HIV, you have it for life (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Currently, no cure exists for HIV. Thankfully, with giant leaps in today’s medical and technological advancements in pharmaceutical research this disease is now considered to be a chronic condition. Today, with proper medical management and compliance the infected p...
2) Moore, J. (2004). The puzzling origins of AIDS: Although no one explanation has been universally accepted, four rival theories provide some important lesson. American Scientist, 92(6), 540-547. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/stable/27858482
AIDS has evolved over time. There are a few theories as to how AIDS evolved from HIV, and how HIV evolved from SIV. One theory on how HIV came into existence is the Hunter Theory. This theory is most commonly accepted and it is the belief that “SIVcpv was transferred to humans ...
If one compares the epidemiology and social impact of these diseases they prove to be quite similar. The current AIDS epidemic has the potential to be the most dangerous and destructive plague of the millennium. No one knows exactly how the AIDS virus erupted. However, one presently dominant theory states that AIDS originated from monkeys in Africa
HIV is believed to be a mutation of the virus found in chimpanzees that cause immunodeficiency in Africa. It is supposed that the virus infected, human during hunting chimpanzee for meat and came in contacts with their blood (CDC, 2016). In the United States the first case of HIV was reported in June 1981 in homosexuals (Qian, Taylor, Fawal & Vermund, 2006).
It has always been believed that some diseases and viruses were transferred from animals into the worlds population, but some conspiracies say otherwise. AIDs has always been a huge virus that millions of people have suffered from since it came about in 1979(Guyatt). HIV is passed from one person to another by blood-to-blood or through sexual contact. Once the virus spreads, it turns into AIDS, which then attacks your immune system. A conspiracy dating back to the 1980s states that HIV/AIDS was created by the CIA with statistics and proof of experimentation backing up the theory.
In the early 1980s deaths by opportunistic infections, previously observed mainly in organ transplant recipients receiving therapy to suppress their immune responses, were recognized in otherwise healthy homosexual men. In 1983 French cancer specialist Luc Montagnier and scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris isolated what appeared to be a new human retrovirus—a special type of virus that reproduces differently from other viruses—from the lymph node of a man at risk for AIDS (see Lymphatic System). Nearly simultaneously, scientists working in the laboratory of American research scientist Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and a group headed by American virologist Jay Levy at the University of California at San Francisco isolated a retrovirus from people with AIDS and from individuals having contact with people with AIDS. All three groups of scientists isolated what is now known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.
In the 1920’s, the first know introduction of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) in our society has been discovered in Kinshasa, now called the Dominican Republic of Congo (Avert.org). Years later, HIV/AIDS is still considered a global issue and continues being considered a wicked problem in our global community. There are many theories from where the virus had come from. The advancement of technology and resources has provided an increased knowledge on the matter throughout the years. Present day, abstinence is the best way to avoid contracting the virus since it cannot be spread from airborne activity and physical contact. Our society works systemically in many ways in order to prevent, treat
There are three stages of severity when a patient contract AIDS. “During the first stage, the individual experiences general flu-like symptoms but remains relatively healthy while the immune system are fighting back”(Bruno 3). Often times, patients have no idea that they are even infected into the AIDS stage of HIV. The beginning symptoms are so similar to the common cold that it is hard to distinguish what is wrong with the
Aids was actually discovered 1981. America was the first country to realize a new illness that was found among gay men. The cause of aids was said to be originated from Africa and was caused by a chimpanzee in West Africa that carried this disease. Scientists who study Aids believe that Aids carried into humans when humans would hunt these animals for meat and came in contact with their infected blood. Therefore, spreading Aids all throughout Africa and spreading further into the world. However, there is another version to how this started. USA was actually the first country to bring aids out into the public. This disease was later known as HIV which stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus and has no cure.
In 2016, 1.1 million people died of HIV/AIDS related viruses worldwide. Such a widespread, contagious, disease should be heavily investigated for treatment, if not cured. These actions must be so difficult to approach because no one is able to exactly pinpoint the true cause of the epidemic. The most common theory is that of animals transmitting a “naturally occurring” disease. The U.S. CDC believes, “Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in Central Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans. They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees
In 1981, a new fatal, infectious disease was diagnosed--AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome). It began in major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco. People, mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users, were dying from very rare lung infections or from a cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma. They have not seen people getting these diseases in numerous years. Soon, it also affected hemophiliacs, blood recipients, prostitutes and their customers, and babies born from AIDS-infected women. AIDS was soon recognized as a worldwide health emergency, and as a fatal disease with no known cure, that quickly became an epidemic. When high-profile victims began to contract the virus, such as basketball star Magic Johnson, the feeling spread quickly that anyone, not just particular groups of people, could be at risk. AIDS impairs the human body’s immune system and leaves the victim susceptible to various infections. With new research, scientists think that the disease was first contracted through a certain type of green monkey in Africa, then somehow mutated into a virus that a human could get. AIDS is a complicated illness that may involve several phases. It is caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person. This virus is called HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus. In order for HIV to become full-blown AIDS, your T-cell count (number of a special type of white-blood cells that fight off diseases) has to drop below 200, or you have to get one of the symptoms of an AIDS-induced infection.