The Origin of AIDS

I have written on the subject matter before, but I again feel the need to elaborate on it. I have become aware of a little know, yet controversial theory in regards as to the origin of HIV and AIDS. Like many of us, I would agree in part that AIDS, like many other deadly diseases occur out of millions of years of mutation and evolution- an act of God if you will. But in virology terms, AIDS is a new disease never before seen or recorded throughout human history. I do not doubt that one day humankind will invent a cure for it, but we have yet to even invent a cure for any known virus. As I’m sure most of us have been to the doctor and have been told that we have a cold virus. There is nothing we can do for it; we let it run its course and we carry on. The trouble is that AIDS does not work like that.

To be clear, not much is known about the origin of AIDS. Some argue that the first case of AIDS was discovered in 1931 in Africa based upon a primordial blood test that indicated a severely weakened immune system, amongst other symptoms. Medical science will argue that this is the origin of AIDS. But others argue that the first case occurred in 1959 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Oddly enough, the first case occurred roughly 2 years after a mass inoculation occurred in order to eradicate another disease, polio. You can see what I am getting at here, but I need to further elaborate on the logistics the polio vaccine itself.

Now don’t go out and have yourself tested for HIV if you’ve had a polio vaccination. In the mid 1950’s there was a race of sorts between competing scientists in regards to the creation of the world’s first polio vaccine. To make a long story short, one version of the vaccine was tested in Estonia, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. To be blunt, this is the version of the vaccine that was made prominent in the west. The other version was tested in Zaire (now the DRC). At the time Zaire was a colony of Belgium and this new vaccine testing was authorized by the government. What was the difference between the two vaccines? It appears as if the one that found common use in the west was created using the kidneys of “green monkeys” while the other vaccine used in Africa was created using the kidneys of Chimpanzees, our closest living relative.

What is the big deal? Oddly enough there is a “monkey version” of the human HIV virus, called SIV or SV40. There are many different versions of SV, but the one with 40 next to it is the key. When the vaccines were being made, the one used in Africa appeared to contain what was being called “virus x,” a rather unstable virus at that. The thing about using the “green monkeys,” as we would later find out is immune from our HIV virus, while chimpanzees are not and can even die from their own SIV. The basic assumption of this theory is that the vaccine used in Africa contained SV40 or the chimp version of the virus. It is then assumed that the SIV found in the chimp version that was injected into 1 million Africans morphed into what we now know as human immunodeficiency virus. How does that sound? Could it be true that humans mistakenly created one of the greatest killers of the 20th century? A killer that as we know cannot be cured and will continue to kill?