Originally posted by earthlings73:
Let's look at AIDS:
[b]AIDS is thought to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa during
the twentieth century
Two species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more
virulent and more easily transmitted. HIV-1 is the source of the
majority of HIV infections throughout the world, while HIV-2 is
less easily transmitted and is largely confined to West Africa.
[1]
Both species of the virus (HIV-1 and HIV-2) are believed to have
originated in West-Central Africa and jumped species (zoonosis)
from primates to humans. HIV-1 evolved from a Simian
Immunodeficiency Virus (SIVcpz) found in the chimpanzee subspecies
Pan troglodytes troglodytes. [2] DNA sequencing indicates that
HIV-1 (group M) entered the human population in the early 20th
century, probably sometime between 1915 and 1941. [3] [4] HIV-2
crossed species from a different strain of SIV, this one found in
sooty mangabeys (an Old World monkey) of Guinea-Bissau. [5]
The earliest documented HIV-1 infection dates from 1959, and was
discovered in the preserved blood sample of a man from Kinshasa in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[6] In 1969, a 15-year-old
African-American male died at the St. Louis City Hospital from
aggressive Kaposi's sarcoma. AIDS was suspected as early as 1988,
and in 1999, researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine
confirmed this, finding HIV-1 in his preserved blood and tissues.
[7] [8] [9]
In 1976, a Norwegian sailor, his wife, and his nine-year-old
daughter died of AIDS. The sailor had first presented symptoms in
1966, four years after he had spent time in ports along the West
African coastline. Tissue samples from the sailor and his wife were
tested in 1988 and found to contain the HIV-1 virus (Group O). [10]
[11] The next documented western death from AIDS was that of Dr.
Grethe Rask in 1977. Rask, a Danish surgeon, had worked in the
Congo in the early 1970s.
The official date for the beginning of the AIDS epidemic is marked
as June 18, 1981, when the US Center for Disease Control and
Prevention reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
newsletter that unusual clusters of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
had been discovered in gay men in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
[12] Over the next eighteen months, more Pneumocystis carinii
clusters were discovered among otherwise healthy men in cities
throughout the country, along with other opportunistic diseases
(such as Kaposi's sarcoma [13] and lymphadenopathy [14]), common in
immunosuppressed patients.
In June 1982, a report of a group of cases amongst gay men in
Southern California suggested that a sexually transmitted
infectious agent might be the etiological agent (MMWR Weekly, 1982)
and was initially termed 'GRID' (Gay Related Immune Deficiency).
However, the same opportunistic infections also began to be
reported among hemophiliacs [15], heterosexual IV drug users, and
Haitian immigrants [16]. By August 1982, the disease was being
referred to by it's new name of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) (Marx et al., 1982). An anagram of AIDS, SIDA, was then
created for use in French (Syndrome d'Immuno-Déficience Acquise)
and Spanish (Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida) (Direction
Générale De La Santé, 1982).
In May 1983, doctors at the Institute Pasteur in France reported
that they had isolated a new retrovirus from lymphoid ganglions
that they believed was the cause of SIDA (Barre-Sinoussi et al.,
1983). The virus was later named lymphadenopathy-associated virus
(LAV) and a sample was sent to the CDC, which was later passed to
the National Cancer Institute, USA (Connor and Kingman,
198
. In May 1984, Dr Robert Gallo of the National Cancer
Institute also isolated a virus that caused AIDS, and named it
Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus-III (HTLV-III) (Popovic et al.,
1984). In January 1985 a number of more detailed reports were
published concerning LAV and HTLV-III, and by March it was clear
that the viruses were the same, from the same source, and was the
etiological agent of AIDS (Marx, 1985; Chang et al., 1993). In May
1986, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses ruled
that both names should be dropped and a new name, HIV (Human
Immunodeficiency Virus), be used (Coffin et al.,
1986).
This is a disease pass from the chimps to us. This point is
clear..
However, what's no clear is how this jump took place.. Through sex?
air-borned? through food contamination? We know that the medium
through which a disease spread among the animals should be
differentiated between a disease spread cross species.. even though
in the human species, the disease is spread through sex and blood
infusion.. It does not mean that the "jump" across species is
through sexual activities too (or at least no scientists have
demonstrated that yet)..
There have been multi-carriers to different parts of the world..
The idea that the first documented case of AIDS is in gays has not
been proven.. The first case in
US is most likely through the gay community.. But that's just
US.. Along the way (or even before the first
documented case in US), it's not definitely through the gay
community..
THis is the global plague of our century.. Blaming the gays but not
addressing how to contain will not get us any where..[/b]
The speculation had been that AIDS had originally infected the
sub-species - like the apes, which happened to be in the food chain
of the African diet.
It is acknowledged that Africa is the source of AIDS from which
maritime workers first caught the disease and spread it unwittingly
through the continents.
However, when AIDS was first detected, it was the HOMOSEXUAL (not
the LESBIAN nor the HETEROSEXUAL) community which had the highest
detection rate of AIDS sufferers.
It was only when knowledge and understanding of AIDS became more
intense that more discoveries from the HETEROSEXUAL community were
made, but still the LESBIAN community do not seem to be so badly
infected - UNLESS the Lesbians had sexual relations with infected
males.
Try reading this article that is
dated 25 August 2005 : - the following is only a
partial extract from the publication:
The Negative Health Effects of
Homosexuality
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS01B1&v=PRINT
Gay Bowel Syndrome (GBS):[32] The
Journal of the American Medical Association refers to GBS problems
such as proctitis, proctocolitis, and enteritis as "sexually
transmitted gastrointestinal syndromes."[33] Many of the bacterial
and protozoa pathogens that cause gbs are found in feces and
transmitted to the digestive system: According to the
pro-homosexual text Anal Pleasure and Health, "[s]exual activities
provide many opportunities for tiny amounts of contaminated feces
to find their way into the mouth of a sexual partner . . . The most
direct route is oral-anal contact."[34]
· Proctitis and Proctocolitis are inflammations of the rectum and
colon that cause pain, bloody rectal discharge and rectal spasms.
Proctitis is associated with STDs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia,
herpes, and syphilis that are widespread among homosexuals.[35] The
Sexually Transmitted Disease Information Center of the Journal of
the American Medical Association reports that "[p]roctitis occurs
predominantly among persons who participate in anal
intercourse."
