Origins of HIV/AIDS
AIDS was officially introduced to the world on June 5, 1981 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new disease, AIDS was first identified in 1981 when opportunistic infections and unusual cases of rare disease such as Kaposi sarcoma were recognized among previously healthy, homosexual males in New York and California (Fauci 2003). Although labelled as Gay-related immune deficiency (GRID) initially and it was discovered that heterosexual people are just as susceptible to AIDS as homosexuals.
In 1984, researchers identified a new virus termed HIV which was found to be the cause of AIDS. In 1986, another strain of HIV was isolated in West Africa and was called HIV-2 to distinguish it from the previous virus (HIV-1). HIV-1 is the predominant virus that causes the worldwide pandemic of HIV/AIDS and HIV-2 is less easily to be transmitted than HIV-1, only affecting West Africa (Morrison 2001). |
HIV is suggested to have originated from the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). One of the most recognized theory of how these strains of viruses could have been transmitted into human body was through contamination of an open wound with the infected blood of a chimpanzee during the butchering processes (Nelson 2005).
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