The Virus

"It has spread to 70 million people, killed 30 million and an estimated 40 million more will be infected over the next decade..."

         

Few people truly know the details of the virus, how it came about and why it spread the way that it did.

            The virus can take as many as 10 years to start showing symptoms; thus, it is an extremely deceitful disease, until it shows its signs. From then on, it is very blunt, showing through worsening symptoms every turn it takes. HIV was discovered in 1983, and for the past 23 years it has been studied thoroughly.

            HIV has two different classes; HIV 1 and HIV 2. HIV 1 is both the most dangerous and most widespread form of the virus, and it has three groups within it; the “major” group M, the “outlier” group O, and the “new” group N. The M group makes up 90 percent of all of the infections in the world. HIV 2 however, is mostly confined to West Africa where it came from.

When It Spread

            HIV 1 has most likely spread into humankind at least three different times, one for each of its subgroups, M, N, and O. It is estimated by scientists that the most common virus, M, went from the Cameroon chimps to humans before 1931, according to Doctor Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

She finds that the virus’ age depends on how different the strains have become. This also accounts for the reason that it is so incredibly difficult to find a cure, or a vaccine for prevention. Depending on the virus’ DNA configuration, a scientist can estimate how long it has been around. Thus, since the oldest HIV sample that scientists have is from 1959, the 1931 prediction was derived.

 

How It Spread

           Most scientists believe that the bushmeat trade was what caused HIV 1, and later HIV 2 to enter the human race. The bushmeat trade is when hunters kill chimpanzees and monkeys. As a result of their work, they are often cut and scratched. Hence, they are often exposed to animal blood that was infected. The hunters of Cameroon were probably the first ones to have caught the original forms of HIV 1. As for HIV 2, in West Africa, sooty mangabeys are often hunted as well as kept as pets, and they could have transmitted the later form of the virus to humans.