AMAZING HISTORY OF AIDS HIV

Since the year 1980s, a lot of debate has been took place about the origin of HIV. So how and from where did HIV come from? Here we will try to discuss proof about the source of HIV and sort out how, where and when HIV 1st starts to cause illness in human being. Two types of HIV found, named HIV-2 and HIV-2.

Relation between HIV and SIV

HIV is one type of lentivirus that means that it will attack immune system. In a same way, SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) attacks monkeys and apes immune system.

Researcher found that HIV is closely related to SIV. There are so many similarities between these two viruses. HIV-1 is related to one strain of SIV which is found in chimpanzees. HIV-2 is related to another strain of SIV that is found in sooty mangabeys.

Monkey is the first source!!!

In the year 1999, one strain of SIV (named SIVcpz) was identified in the chimpanzee which was almost identical to HIV in humans. Those researchers who discovered the relation, concluded that this proved, chimpanzees were infected with HIV-1. The virus had at some point shifted species, from chimps to mankind.

Same scientists conducted more and more research about how this SIV could have grew in chimps. They noted that chimps had hunted and then eaten two species of monkeys (red-capped mangabeys, greater spot-nosed monkeys) and became infected with two different type of SIV.

After that, two different strains of SIV joined together to create a third virus, which is caused by genomic fusion, which is common in viruses, named SIVcpz that could be passed to other chimps. This strain is able to infect humans.

How did HIV came from chimps to man?

The most reliable theory is named ‘hunter’. In this case, SIVcpz was transferred to man when chimps being killed and then eaten, or blood of chimps getting into wounds or cuts on the man hunter. The hunter's body would have struggled off SIV, but in some few occasions it adapted itself in new human host and converted to HIV-1.

There are four main types of HIV strains. They are M, N, O, and P. Each having a slightly different genetic structure. These differences supports the hunter theory because each time SIV transmitted from a chimpanzee to a man, it would have developed in a little different way in the human body, and produce a slightly different strain. That is why there is more than 1 strain of HIV-1.

How the HIV-2 transmitted to man?

HIV-2 transmitted from sooty mangabey monkeys. The transmission to man is in a similar path as the consumption of monkey meat and butchering.

It is far rarer and very less infectious than the HIV-1. So that it infects fewer people and predominantly found in some countries like Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, all are in West Africa.

Where and when HIV did infect humans?

Research of some earliest samples of HIV gives clues regarding when it 1st appeared in man and then how it evolved. HIV-1 Group M was the most studied strain. This is the strain that spreads the whole world and is amenable for the majority of HIV infections now a day.

Did HIV appeared first in Africa?

By Using, earliest sample of HIV, scientists created a 'family-tree' of HIV transmission. So, thus they discovered where HIV started.

Their study shows that the 1st transmission of SIV to HIV in man happened in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the year 1920.

Same area is also known for containing the vast genetic diversity of strains of HIV than any other place. It reflects that in different times, SIV was transmitted to humans. So many of the 1st cases of the disease AIDS were noted there too.

How the HIV spread from Kinshasa?

The area adjacent to Kinshasa is full of roads and railways. A growing sex trade is always running around this area. The increased population of migrants and also sex trade explain how HIV spread from here.

Thus the shortage of transport routes around the North and East of country  supports why there is significantly lower reports of infections in those area.

By the year 1980, about half of all infections in Congo were outside of the area Kinshasa which reflects the growing epidemic.

Why Haiti is important?

Around 1960s, 'B' subtype of HIV-1 (it is a subtype of M strain) had got its way to Haiti. During that time, so many Haitian professionals who were doing their job in the Congo returned to Haiti. So they were blamed for the HIV epidemic. They suffered severe stigma, racism, discrimination as a consequence.

Subtype B of HIV-1 is now considered as the most spread subtype of HIV globally, with around 75 million infections.

What happened in USA in 1980s?

Some people say that HIV begins in the 1980s in the USA. In the year 1981, a few cases of rare diseases were reported among gay men in California and New York like Kaposi's sarcoma (a rare malignancy). It is described one of the Tom Hanks movie.

It was very suspicious why these opportunistic infections and cancer were spreading. At first the disease was called in so many names those are relating to word 'gay'.  It was mid 1982 when researcher realised the disease, was also spreading among hemophiliacs and heroin users too. And in September of that year, finally the disease was named AIDS.

At first majority of the AIDS cases in the USA, were among homosexual, heroin users and hemophiliacs.

This, in short, is the history of AIDS. Feel free to ask any questions. Thanks.

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