When the first case was reported in the 1980s, it was believed to be the “gay disease,” because it was known to be spreading predominantly among homosexual communities. For a time, no one, including scientists, knew what the disease was or how it was spread, leading to panic, discrimination and fear.
And then there was an answer —D Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, more commonly known as AIDS. Caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), AIDS is a disease transmitted through blood-to-blood contact, often by sexual intercourse. So when it was discovered that HIV came to us from monkeys, many researchers began to hypothesize how and when the most lethal disease of our time started to affect us.
The first confirmed case of HIV was found in the blood of a man in the Congo. In the 1980s, it seemed that AIDS was specific to homosexuals, heroin users, hemophiliacs, and Haitians, but it was soon found that those four demographics were not alone. It was proposed that HIV came to the United States from Haiti after arriving on the small island from Africa. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention hypothesized that the disease was only a few hundred years old, but recently, studies have shown that the virus may actually be much older than was originally thought.
Researchers from the National Primate Research Center at Tulane University have used evolutionary studies to show that the virus that causes AIDS has been in monkeys and apes for at least 32,000 years. This explains why several monkeys are infected with the virus, but their illness is mild to nearly nonexistent. Over several generations, the virus killed off several individuals, but the few monkeys who managed to survive were able to adapt to the virus, passing on a rudimentary immunity to future offspring.
The monkeys that were studied live on Bioko, a volcanic island that was separated from the coast of West Africa during the last ice age. Since the rising of sea levels and consequent isolation of the monkeys on that island, six relatively new species of monkey have arisen, four of which are infected by the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, the ape strain of HIV. This indicates that the virus is at least 10,000 years old, and after measuring the rate of mutation, it was found that the virus is actually somewhere between 32,000 and 78,000 years old.
Researchers believe that the virus had crossed over from monkeys to humans several times; man has been hunting monkeys for thousands of years, so the risk of transmittance has always been high. But then how has it been spreading as quickly as it has in recent years? Some scientists blame the mass production of syringes. Because other diseases were ravaging Africa, including malaria, smallpox, and polio, vaccines to prevent these diseases were discovered, packaged into syringes, and shipped all across the continent. The syringes were commonly reused, giving rise to the possibility for a high rate of transmittance in the 1960s.
However, others attribute the rapid spread of HIV to urbanization and the development of villages that previously had not had more than 10,000 residents. Now, major cities across Africa have slums and red-light districts that promote unprotected sex. In either case, AIDS is one of history’s most lethal killers, having claimed the lives of over 25 million people to date.
