HIV+: How did HIV/AIDS ACTUALLY start

How did HIV/AIDS ACTUALLY start?
Where did the disease come from? and why is it spreading like wildfire?
Infectious Diseases - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
the answer is pretty long,look up fr the facts on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aids#History
2 :
I'm not really sure on the details, but I do know it started off with a group of people and they were given medicine to fight it off. You know how the doctor tells you to finish the medicine even when you begin to feel better? They missed that memo, and stopped. The disease was still in their bodies, they just felt better, so they stopped the medication and spread it then the disease became something became stronger than the medicines used to treat it therefore became something they couldn't combat
3 :
it started with monkeys. It was transfered to humans when a human had sexual intercourse with an infected monkey, then it spread thru the human community. it can only be transmitted one way, bodily fluid transfer. KINDA SICK - AIN'T IT!!! HIV/AIDS is a virus, antibiotics do not kill a virus.
4 :
HIV is a member of the genus Lentivirus, all of which produce slow, incessant infections of the immune system. These viruses have been found in several animals, including cats, sheep, horses and cattle, and monkeys, where the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) has been isolated. It is now genearlly accepted that HIV is a descendant of SIV because certain strains of SIV bear a very close resemblance to HIV-1 and HIV-2, the two types of HIV. HIV-2 corresponds to the SIV strain found in the sooty mangabey (or green monkey), which is indigenous to western Africa. Until recently, the origin for the more virulent HIV-1 was more difficult to place. The closest counterpart was to SIV found in chimpanzees. However, this virus still had certian significant differences from HIV-1. ....research was done, blah blah.... and they concluded that wild chimps had been infected simultaneously with two different SIVs, which had recombined to form a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps, and more significantly, was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDS. ...we traced the two viruses back to monkeys...and they believe that the hybridization took place inside chimps that had become infected with both strains of SIV after they hunted and killed the two smaller species of monkeys. (Yes, some chimps do hunt and kill animals). The most likely scenario is that in the 1930's, HIV-1 jumped to humans who were eating "bush meat" (the term used for monkey meat). In fact, transfer of retroviruses from primates to hunters can still be documented. HIV-2 jumped from the sooty mangabey in the 1960s. The sudden arrival of HIV in the 1980s could have been due to increased international air travel. The use of blood transfusions and intravenous drug use, both of which increased in the 1970s, could also have contributed to the emergence of HIV. Both have been a documented source of HIV transmissions as well as for other diseases, such as hepatitis C, between humans. It is doubtful we will ever know exactly how HIV evolved, but current scientific evidence appears quite strong. --- The reason it is spreading like wild fire is because of the lack of safe sexual practices, especially in places like Africa. Condoms are viewed as the devil's work by some religious groups that do relief work. You've probably never been to Africa, but if you do go you may be shocked. It's common practice for the men to have several sexual partners in a week (they thought nothing of 10 different partners). There's also a rumor that sex with a virgin will cure you of your HIV/AIDS so children are getting raped and becoming infected. It's sad, but it's just a lack of protective measure being taken. And it is SO HARD to get them to understand why it's important to use condoms. The women would come up and ask for some when they realized the dangers of unprotected sex, but by them time they got them it was too late anyway. It's just their way of life. It's difficult to introduce these things and expect them to be used. It's just so common that it'll take ages to finally get rid of HIV/AIDS, if it's even possible. Babies are being born with it, so the lifecycle continues.
5 :
It is closely related to a virus found in chimps, and is believed to have come from there. the best theory i have heard is that it spread to humans from them eating chimpanzee meat. But transmitted when they cut themselves prepairing the meat, probably couldn't be caught from eating cooked meat. This happened at least 50 years ago, how much more than 50 years ago depends who you ask. A couple of the things they think helped it spread through africa were early vaccination campains reusing needles, and truckers and other migratory workers seeing different sex workers in each town. It spread within Africa till about the 70s, then in the 1980s a strange new disease was noticed among gay men in the USA, it probably spread through that population fastest in that group because heterosexuals who wwere having permiscuous sex were often using condoms to prevent pregnancy. Now with increased safe sex among gay men in the USA and Europe these poplulations are at as much risk as they once were. Now there are a few different transmission patters, which sub-group is most effected depends on the country. Sex workers (in countries with poor regulation of sex work or poor availability of safe sex stuff), of IV drug users, prisoners, or some countries it is pretty much in all sexually active adults. The "spreading like wild fire" is probably because people can pass it on to a lot of other people before they even know they have it.

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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

How did HIV/AIDS ACTUALLY start