HIV Origins - by Johan Obbes

The Origin of HIV

Numerous theories exist where this virus came from. Some theories go as far as to say that it was a result of the United States who developed a biological weapon during the Viëtnam war. Other theories are more scientifically based like the theory that it might have been a virus (found in chimpanzees), which was mutated unintentionally, when a polio vaccine was developed in Central Africa in the late 1950’s. This mutation allowing for it to possibly cross from one kind of primate to another. At this point in the fight we can see from more research that HIV is a fairly new disease and thus probably also being the reason why it has not been detected in humans before the 20^th century. Billions of Rands have been spent on  research of HIV & Aids, the care, counselling and treatment of those people who are affected and infected by the virus and not even mentioning the trauma and witch hunts which it has caused to vulnerable groups throughout the world.

Yet if the theories are true that us as humans were responsible for the creation of this Human Immunodeficiency Virus, then it will probably go down in history as the most expensive mistake humanity ever made. Renowned author Alta van Dyk  explains this so well in her book “HIVAIDS Care & Counselling; A multidisciplinary approach”

This theory about the origin of the AIDS epidemic suggest that AIDS is not a new disease, but has been present for centuries in central Africa. It remained undetected only because of the lack of diagnostic facilities. The clinical symptoms of AIDS (such as fever and pneumonia) were ascribed to malaria and TB. The spread of HIV/AIDS was limited because there was little contact with outsiders, and it was introduced to the Western world only when international travel became more common.

One of the arguments against this theory is that modern testing of archived blood samples from Africa rarely shows any sign of HIV infection before the 1980s (Schoub, 1999:14). In tests carried out on these frozen blood samples, the earliest sample shown to be positive for HIV antibodies was taken in 1959 in Kinshasa in the then Belgian Congo. Also, doctors with many years of clinical experience in Africa deny that before the 1980s they ever saw diseases resembling the very obvious characteristics of AIDS. It seems that AIDS is indeed a new disease and that HIV was introduced into the human population in the 1950s.

The second theory about the origin of AIDS is that HIV crossed the species barrier from primates to humans at some time during the twentieth century (Korber, 2000). HIV is related to a virus called SIV or simian immunodeficiency virus, which is found in primates. There are a number of SIV strains and each strain is specific to the monkey species that it infects. For example, SIVagm infect the African green monkey, SIVmnd infects the mandrill ape, and SIVsm the sooty mangabey monkey (Schoub, 1999). Under natural conditions, each strain will infect only its own specific species of monkey and it will also not infect humans. HIV also cannot infect any animal other than humans, except under experimental laboratory conditions where infection can be induced in chimpanzees. Immunodeficiency viruses occur in other animals too, for example in cats, cattle, horses, sheep and goats, but natural infections with these viruses are also species-specific and will not spread to animals from other species.

                Within the SIV group of viruses, SIVsm (the sooty mangabey virus) shows the closest relationship to an HIV strain, and specifically to HIV-2. It is interesting to note that HIV-2 is confined mostly to West Africa, which is also the natural habitat of the sooty mangabey monkey. However, the link between HIV-1 and SIV is not so clear. According to Schoub (1999:15)

...this missing link may have been discovered by the isolation of a virus from a captive chimpanzee in Gabon in 1989. The virus (called SIVcpz) is fare more closely related to HIV-1 than any other immunodeficiency virus, and it is also the only virus that possesses the same set of gene as HIV-1

Scientists still treat this finding with some reserve. This chimpanzee was a captive animal, and it is therefore possible that SIVcpz could be a human virus which for some unknown reason infect that particular chimpanzee.

                The question still remains how simian viruses could have been transmitted from monkeys to humans. It is believed that the virus probably crossed from primates to humans when contaminated animal blood entered cuts on the hand of people who were butchering SIV-infected animals for food. Another possibility is that chimpanzee and monkey blood, which was used for malaria research long ago, could have been the conduit into the human species. There is also a theory that incriminates early oral polio vaccines as the source of SIV infection of humans with its subsequent mutation to HIV (Hooper, 1999). Early trials of oral polio vaccines in the late 1950’s were carried out by spraying prototype vaccines into the mouths and throats of several hundred thousand people in Rwanda, Zaïre and Burundi, precisely the early epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Oral polio vaccines which contain a suspension of live vaccine strains of the polio virus, are produced on cell cultures derived from the kidneys of African green monkeys. It is believed by some that the vaccines could have been contaminated by SIVagm from the monkey kidneys at a time when vaccines were not tested for contaminating simian viruses. Theories like this cannot be confirmed and may cause untold harm to immunization programmes such as the global effort to eradicate polio.

                In summary it can be said that the AIDS epidemic began in humans in the late seventies and early eighties, and that there were only a few isolated cases of AIDS-like diseases before then. Although the virus probably crossed the species barrier from primates to humans, it is impossible to say exactly how or when that happened. The initial spread of HIV was probably limited isolated communities in Africa who had little contact with the outside world, but various factors, such as migration, improved transportation networks, tourism, socio-economic instability, multiple sexual partners, prostitution, injecting drug use and an exchange of blood products, ultimately cause the virus to spread all over the world.

Conclusion

Although we claim the above as a theory, the fact that it is based on scientific facts makes it one of the most logical explanations for this disease. Often we hear the question “...but where did this disease come from...” in our counselling rooms, and the absence of the truth haunts us like the ghosts of those whom we could not save. If we were to be responsible for the start of this disease, then make sure that we end this disease not through more deaths but through offering people hope, with realistic encouragement, towards taking responsibility, for change and growth, leading to maturity and value, worth and peace.

Johan Obbes

References: 

Van Dyk, 2008. HIVAIDS Care & Counselling; A Multidisciplinary Approach. 4^th Edn. 1(1): 6 – 7. Pearson Education South Africa

Schoub, B.D. 1999. AIDS and HIV in perspective. A guide to understanding the virus and its consequences, 2^nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hooper, E. 1999. The River. A journey back to the source of HIV and AIDS. Londen: Penguin.

Korber, B. February 2000. Timing the origin of the HIV-1 pandemic. Paper presented at the 7^th Annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, San Francisco.