CIA? KGB? Sex with gorillas? About wild "theories" and probable explanations. Abridged text from Justine Alford*.
According to estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Aids Programme (UNAIDS), around 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2010. Worldwide, around 6,000 people die every day as a result of the infection.
The virus itself
t was first a few decades ago discovered [1983, editor's note]. But how did it all start? How did HIV come to us humans in the first place and then trigger one of the most devastating transnational and cross-continental epidemics in history? Various theories are presented below:
The HIV conspiracy theory
The two "explanations" most frequently thrown into the room as to how HIV came to us humans are: "It was the government" or "It was people having sex with monkeys".
Yes, there are many conspiracy theories surrounding HIV. So some people denySome people believe that HIV is the cause of AIDS, while others claim that HIV was developed by humans: According to a 2005 survey of African Americans, almost 50 per cent of respondents believed that the virus originated in a laboratory, and many even believed that it was developed to specifically control the black population or homosexuals.
But there is absolutely no evidence to support these theories - and plenty of evidence that they are absolute rubbish. Some of the first documented cases of HIV date back to the late 1950s, and it would be absurd to claim that science had the knowledge or technology to "build" viruses back then. The DNA structure was only discovered in 1953, the first artificial bacterial genome was created not so long ago - the same applies to the development of an artificial virus. Such an achievement requires expertise in genetic manipulation, and this expertise did not exist at the time.
And many other theories ...
There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that HIV evolved from closely related viruses common to various primates in Africa and was transmitted to humans.
Some people apparently find the idea that humans could have had sex with primates and become infected quite appealing, but no expert takes this seriously. (With a gorilla? Really?!)
One plausible theory - which has nothing to do with primates - is at least that, given the fact that medical equipment is expensive, syringes and needles were reused in vaccination programmes in Africa - giving the viruses multiple opportunities to spread through the population. Together with an increase in international travel, sexual promiscuity and intravenous drug use, this seems to be a logical explanation for the emergence of the HIV pandemic.
The simplest explanation, however, is that humans have had contact with the blood or faeces of infected primates. This is also entirely plausible, as smoky mangabeys (primate species), for example, were kept as pets in West Africa, the region where a form of HIV is most common, and were also slaughtered for their meat. And during slaughter, it is quite possible for infected body fluids to enter the body through skin wounds.
The bottom line
We can't definitively prove where HIV came from, but we can make plausible assumptions based on the available research. And all the results indicate that HIV came to us from primates, not from the government. Nothing wrong with a good conspiracy theory, but it just doesn't add up here.
*Justine Alford has been a doctor of biosciences (Warwick University) since 2014. She specialises in HIV and immunology.
