The History of AIDS

The Origin of AIDS
HIV is a fairly new disease that has become greatly feared. Currently, the origin of HIV is not yet known but there are many theories. The more common theories are discussed in this site but there are many more out there.

The African Chimpanzee Theory
The most popular theory seems to be that HIV was transmitted through chimpanzees to humans in Africa. What supposedly happened was that SIV which infects chimpanzees somehow evolved to HIV and jumped to humans. This all started in Western Central Africa and according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, HIV could have started as early as the 1930's. In the 1960's and 1970's, many inhabitants of Africa moved to cities and this caused overcrowding, umemployment, and prostitution. In these years, it is believe that HIV started its giant spread. The African Chimpanzee Theory is the widely accepted theory but scientists hypothesized some more. It was hard to believe that SIV could have mutated into HIV and then somehow would be able to jump from one species to another, many organizations set out to find the truth.

The Polio Vaccine Theory
This theory suggests that human polio vaccine tests spread the virus. A few decades ago, Polio was the common disease which killed or crippled people. To find a cure or vaccine for this disease, scientists worked hard and many vaccines were created. Testing these vaccines made use of the chimpanzees and the many "poor" human volunteers in Africa. It is suggested that perhaps the Polio vaccines were grown on chimpanzee kidneys that were infected with SIV and then the vaccine was tested on humans. These vaccinations were given in the 1950's and 1960's and then the infected individuals continued the spreading. Wistar Institute was the organiztion that produced the target vaccine but they claim that chimpanzees were only used to test the vaccine, not make the vaccine. There are currently four strains of HIV isolated which all came about within a few decades. The Polio vaccine theory would explain why several stains of HIV (HIV-1, HIV-2) seemed to appear in Africa around the same time. Currently, there is a sample of the Polio vaccine that is frozen at the Wistar Institute and some people belive that it should be tested for HIV or SIV to test the theory.

First Identification of AIDS
In the early 1980's, several unusual sicknesses showed up in New York City. A few months later, the same unusual sicknesses showed up in California. These sicknesses were Kaposi's sarcoma (a rare skin cancer resulting in purple lesions on the skin), and Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia or PCP (a rare type of pneumonia). As more and more cases of these diseases were reported, it was clear that these weren't merely coincidences. It was showing up in more and more countries and scientists got to work right away. They found that the majority of the patients who had Kaposi's sarcoma were homosexuals. The same was true for PCP and the two diseases were then linked. In 1982, scientists were convinced that the diseases were linked to a virus and they created the name AIDS. In 1983, scientists in Paris isolated HIV-1 as the cause. In 1984, scientists in the United States found HIV-1. In 1985, scientists in France found another strain of the virus which they named HIV-2. Scientists began work on a cure right away. Unfortunately, a cure has not yet been found. In 1987, the first drug to treat AIDS was found. It was called AZT.

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