Since HIV is an infectious disease, people with it have compromised immune systems. Without treatment, HIV can progress to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The spread of the infection can be halted and people’s health can be maintained by having a basic understanding of HIV.

Origin of HIV: The Facts

Human HIV was spread among chimpanzees in Central Africa.

It was once believed that humans contracted the Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) from chimpanzees they had killed for their flesh and then drank their tainted blood.

HIV may have been passed from chimpanzees to humans as early as the eighteenth century, according to scientists.

Over several decades, HIV spread from Africa to the rest of the world.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been the focus of study and debate ever since it was discovered in the 1980s, albeit its origins are still unknown. Today, it is generally understood how, when, and where HIV first caused human illness.

Does HIV and SIV share genetic ancestry?

The human immunodeficiency virus is one type of lentivirus (HIV). The Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) has a similar impact on monkeys and apes. There is evidence linking HIV with SIV, and the two viruses share a lot of characteristics. SIV strains shared by HIV-1 and chimpanzees are different from those shared by HIV-2 and sooty mangabeys.

When a SIV variation (known as SIVcpz) was discovered in a chimpanzee in 1999, it was proven that chimpanzees were the first hosts of HIV-1 and that the virus had transmitted from apes to humans.

It was looked into if SIV may spread among chimpanzees. They found that chimpanzees had consumed two different smaller monkey species, including the sooty mangabey, and that these smaller monkeys had given the chimps two different strains of the SIV virus. SIVcpz, an unique virus that could infect other chimpanzees, was created when the two SIV strains fused. We are talking about a virus that can infect people in this manner.

What Methods of HIV Transmission from Chimpanzees Lead to Human Infection?

The chimpanzee “Hunter Hypothesis” postulates that chimpanzees may have given humans HIV. In this case, SIVcpz was transferred from chimpanzees to people by eating them or by their blood getting into human cuts or wounds while the humans were out hunting. After that, the virus changed in people, becoming HIV-1. The hunter theory proposes that the diversity of HIV-1 subtypes is explained by the fact that each time SIV is passed from a chimpanzee to a human, it evolves slightly differently within the human body.

Source: https://youtu.be/HSYjoEcoLzU