appoh
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 14, 2013
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Where did HIV come from?
Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans.
They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virusor SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood. Over decades, the virus slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world.
The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (How he became infected is not known.) Genetic analysis of this blood sample suggested that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s. We know that the virus has existed in the United States since at least the mid- to late1970s.
From 1979–1981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men. These were conditions not usually found in people with healthy immune systems.
In 1982 public health officials began to use the term "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,"or AIDS, to describe the occurrences of opportunistic infections, Kaposi's sarcoma (a kind of cancer), and Pneumo cystis jirovecii pneumonia in previously healthy people.
Formal tracking(surveillance) of AIDS cases began that year in the United States. In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS.
The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV (human T-celllymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus) by an international scientific committee. This namewas later changed to HIV(human immunodeficiency virus).
For many years scientists theorized as to the origins of HIV and how it appeared in the human population, most believing that HIV originated in other primates.
Then in 1999, an international team of researchers reported that they had discovered the origins ofHIV-1, the predominant strain of HIV in the developed world. A sub species of chimpanzees native to west equatorial Africa had been identified as the original source of the virus.
There searchers believe that HIV-1was introduced into the human population when hunters became exposed to infected blood.
Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans.
They believe that the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virusor SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood. Over decades, the virus slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world.
The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (How he became infected is not known.) Genetic analysis of this blood sample suggested that HIV-1 may have stemmed from a single virus in the late 1940s or early 1950s. We know that the virus has existed in the United States since at least the mid- to late1970s.
From 1979–1981 rare types of pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses were being reported by doctors in Los Angeles and New York among a number of male patients who had sex with other men. These were conditions not usually found in people with healthy immune systems.
In 1982 public health officials began to use the term "acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,"or AIDS, to describe the occurrences of opportunistic infections, Kaposi's sarcoma (a kind of cancer), and Pneumo cystis jirovecii pneumonia in previously healthy people.
Formal tracking(surveillance) of AIDS cases began that year in the United States. In 1983, scientists discovered the virus that causes AIDS.
The virus was at first named HTLV-III/LAV (human T-celllymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus) by an international scientific committee. This namewas later changed to HIV(human immunodeficiency virus).
For many years scientists theorized as to the origins of HIV and how it appeared in the human population, most believing that HIV originated in other primates.
Then in 1999, an international team of researchers reported that they had discovered the origins ofHIV-1, the predominant strain of HIV in the developed world. A sub species of chimpanzees native to west equatorial Africa had been identified as the original source of the virus.
There searchers believe that HIV-1was introduced into the human population when hunters became exposed to infected blood.