The Origin Of AIDS
AIDS is caused by the HIV virus. The virus damages the immune system of a healthyindividual and makes the infected person more vulnerable to infectious that normally would pose little threat.
Luc Montagnier at the Institute Pasteur in France and Robert Gallo at
the National Cancer Institute in the USA grew the HIV virus in 1993 and
later produced an antibody that allowed them to locate the virus. They
then used it with blood that was stored in the U.S.A and around the world
to figure out when the first infection with the virus occurred. It turns
out that the earliest known infection was in blood that was dated back
to 1959.
There are two HIV viruses: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is related to the SIV
virus (simian immunodeficiency virus) that are found in chimpanzees. The
SIV virus is not normally deadly in the original host (chimpanzees) but
once it infects another species or host, it become more injurious.
HIV-2 virus, however, is found in the Sooty Mangabey monkey. This monkey
carries the SIV virus and it is believed that the SIV virus went from
the chimps and monkeys to humans. It then adapted itself in its new host
and created a disease that was different and that had never been seen
in humans before. Therefore, the origin of HIV virus was acquired from
animals and this is known as zoonosis (Denning,pg v14ilp37).