HIV Theories...

These theories are very interesting, all of them. I think it is really important to know where the disease came from. It is like history, how can we know where we are headed without knowing where we've been? I think that if we can for sure find the source of the HIV it will help so much to try to figure out how we can stop the spread of the disease. I think that if any of these theories have really nailed how we got the disease it will really help the research of how to cure the disease. Especially if HIV did come from SIV it will be a lot easier to try to figure out how SIV reacts with chimps and what changed when it shifted over into humans. Maybe understanding this mutation will lead to understanding how to get rid of it. The two most intriguing theories to me were; first the "hunter theory" since so many of the others are based on this and it really seems plausible, and the Colonialism Theory.

It seems fairly conclusive that the HIV came from a mutation of chimpanzee disease SIV. Somehow it had to mutate and enter the human blood stream. The "hunter theory" does an excellent job of explaining this in a logical way. Obviously those men in Africa that were hunting monkeys were exposed to the blood as well as eating the animal. The chimpanzee's, being the closest related ancestor to humans, made it much easier for a disease to go from one species to the next because of the similar genes. These men for sure did not even know what the consequences could be when dealing with blood from the chimps and probably got a lot of blood on them and in cuts and things making the spread relatively easy. From there even if only a few humans got the disease from the simians they would proceed to transfer it to other humans through sexual activity or blood transfer and it would go on to be the epidemic it is today. I am in pretty full agreement at the likelihood that the "hunter theory" is the cause of the start of HIV.

From there the Colonialism Theory really only expands on the same turn of events. It is pretty much in agreement with how the disease came from chimps and entered the human blood stream. In fact, "Colonialism" really just backs that theory up and builds upon it. It goes into the fact that in the area that was the major spread of HIV there were these labor camps that had massive amounts of workers. These plays were rampant with disease, prostitution, and sharing needles. The perfect way to get everyone in the camp infected with HIV. Since so many died in these camps and there is no records there is really no way to tell but if there was a massive spread of the disease this would have been the place to spread it faster than anywhere. After the break up of the camp the disease would be free to spread to thousands more people. It also lines up perfectly on the time line for the beginning of the spread of HIV. Between these two theories I can definitely see how HIV could have transferred to humans and then been spread super fast.