How did AIDS appear in people? History of the origin and development of HIV: first cases of infection
Disease? Where did AIDS come from? Social advertisements on TV and radio scare us with this term and urge us to fight it.
First of all, it is worth understanding that AIDS is (as a result of some disease) immunodeficiency. They do not become infected with it, since it is not some kind of bacteria, but a syndrome. In turn, a syndrome is a combination of any symptoms that occur against the background of a disease, such as HIV. Most often, the creators of commercials on a social topic mean HIV by this term, that is, for this reason, it would be more correct to ask not “where did AIDS come from?”, but “where did HIV come from?” So where did this virus come from?
But since many people most often ask on forums: “Where did AIDS come from?”, we will probably answer this question.
The first cases of the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome were identified in drug addicts and homosexuals. Soon after this, it was found that among people with this syndrome there are often those who have previously been treated with or its drugs. And in the early eighties of the 20th century, American scientists R. Gallo and M. Essex were the first to suggest that all cases of decreased functions of the immune system that cannot be treated are a consequence of the disease. In their opinion, this disease is caused by a type of retrovirus that causes a certain type of leukemia in an infected person.
Studies that were conducted a little later showed that AIDS develops in a person who was previously infected with HIV. This virus infects only one group of cells involved in cellular immunity, - T-lymphocytes. At first it only disrupts the functions of these cells, and then completely destroys them. For this reason human body becomes defenseless against various microorganisms - protozoa, viruses and fungi. In addition, a significant weakening of the immune system subsequently provokes the development of a variety of malignant tumors.
In general, we have answered the question of where AIDS first came from. It is clear that the origin of AIDS is conditioned. And it would be wrong to say that HIV is the causative agent of AIDS. This is one of the stages (last or terminal). But where did this virus come from?
There are several theories about its origin:
Robert Gallo's theory. This scientist believes that the original carriers of HIV infection were green monkeys living in Africa. At some point, a dangerous retrovirus was able to overcome the interspecies barrier and was transmitted to people. In addition to green monkeys, some other species of primates are also at risk, for example, the African mangabite and chimpanzees, since antibodies to HIV were detected in their blood. But no one yet knows where the monkeys got it from.
HIV is a mistake made by scientists. Some believe that this deadly virus is the result of a failed experiment in which scientists tried to create a vaccine against hepatitis and polio in the 1970s. It was during this time that cases of AIDS in humans were first reported in the United States. By the way, vaccines against polio and hepatitis are created precisely from the biological material of chimpanzees. And here one cannot help but notice the connection with the previous theory.
HIV - there is no such disease! There is antiretroviral therapy, which subsequently causes AIDS in humans. It turns out that HIV is just a fairy tale from pharmaceutical companies who want to make more money this way.
HIV is a biological weapon that was created by American scientists in order to undermine the position of the USSR in the world.
Since the first recorded cases of infection HIV Less than 40 years have passed since the infection in history, and the number of people infected in the world today is already about 35 million.
At the same time, in Russia the situation is especially difficult: every hundredth Russian is a carrier HIV, and the incidence in our country continues to grow at a high rate.
Where did it come from, how and when did it appear? AIDS in the world? After all, 30 years ago almost no one had heard of him. What is the history of detection of the pathogen HIV-infections, we will tell you in our material.
History of the discovery of HIV infection
Luc Montagnier - French virologist who discovered lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV)
In 1959, a man died of an unidentified illness in Kinshasa. At that time, scientists did not yet suspect HIV-infections. Only an analysis of his remains many years later showed that, most likely, it was AIDS caused this death.
Was this the first death? AIDS but in the world, of course, it is unknown, because the virus was discovered only 2 decades after this incident. It is unlikely that it will be possible to find out where and in what year it appeared AIDS.
Cases of unknown deaths from diseases similar to AIDS, described by doctors in the 1970s in African countries, Sweden, Haiti and USA, however, even then medicine had no idea what a terrible enemy it would soon have to face.
Events developed rapidly. In 1981, doctors in Los Angeles encountered unusual diseases in homosexuals, who had severe cases of herpes, a very rare form of pneumonia and vascular cancer.
Doctors quickly realized that this was not a matter of the usual decrease in immunity in patients, but they could not explain the reason. Meanwhile, these are atypical serious illnesses claimed the first 128 lives in different cities USA, and new cases of the mysterious disease were not long in coming. An epidemic has begun.
In 1982, reports emerged of severe immunodeficiency in people following blood transfusions. While there was debate about the causes of these conditions, data appeared about drug addicts and their sexual partners who became infected. As the number of cases grew, doctors discovered more and more new facts - it turned out that a strange disease could be transmitted from mother to child.
By 1983, scientists agreed that we were talking about a virus unknown to science that was transmitted sexually and through blood. Soon, independently of each other, two groups of scientists were able to isolate the virus.
Every second citizen of Swaziland has HIV At the Pasteur Institute (Paris), Luc Montagnier discovered a virus in a patient with enlarged lymph nodes, which was called “virus associated with lymphadenopathy” ( LAV).
At the same time, Professor Robert Gallo USA, while studying patients with a new disease with his colleagues, he also discovered a new virus and called it “human lymphotropic virus.” III type" ( HTLV -3).
Soon, scientists realized that we were talking about the same microorganism, which in 1985 received the designation NTLV –III / LAV, and in 1987 — HIV(Human immunodeficiency virus, that is, human immunodeficiency virus).
By this time, the disease had already been registered in many countries, and the number of its victims was growing, reaching terrifying figures by 2005 (the peak of the global epidemic). For example, in the small African state of Swaziland, sick HIV every second citizen and the average life expectancy in this country is only 37 years.
How HIV spread across the planet
The history of the emergence of HIV in Russia
When Soviet doctors received from their Western colleagues all the information about where it comes from HIV, they were able to find out how patient K. (as Vladimir was called in the medical literature) became infected. As it turned out, the man was homosexual. During a business trip to Tanzania, he had sexual intercourse with a local resident, from whom he received the virus.
Returning home, the translator repeatedly entered into intimate relationships with soldiers. Among them and their loved ones, doctors soon identified 14 cases HIV-infections. Vladimir himself died in 1991 without being discharged from the infectious diseases hospital. He was the first citizen USSR, who was found to have HIV, but not the first to die from AIDS A.
When exactly did Leningrad student Olga Gaevskaya become infected - the first woman to get sick? AIDS om in Russia - unknown. But it was established that the girl was not distinguished by strict morals and repeatedly had sexual relations with tourists, including those from the African continent.
Olga first turned to doctors in 1985 and over the next 3 years she received sick leave certificates 26 times for various diseases. Then no one could connect the girl’s condition with HIV-infection, and in 1988 she died of Pneumocystis pneumonia, never knowing her diagnosis, which was established after her death.
And then the tragedy struck in Elista, and reports of mass infections appeared in Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don. We were already talking about hundreds of infected people, most of whom were children. Hitherto unfamiliar definitions appeared in medical histories - HIV And AIDS, and Soviet medicine faced a challenge for which it was not ready.
We will never know who actually was the “sick zero” (“patient zero”) - the first person to get sick AIDS om in the world. After all, it is not known for certain where the infection came from. History has preserved several names of sick people AIDS om, in whom the infection was discovered for the first time, and everything else is just guesswork and hypotheses.
HIV infection and AIDS - history of occurrence
Speaking at a scientific conference, Professor Robert Garry said that HIV much older than expected, and if it mutated from VIO, then many centuries ago. Unfortunately, it is impossible to test the professor’s theory, because scientists simply do not have frozen materials from such a long time ago.
HIV has always existed
Some scientists doubt whether it is possible to become infected HIV from a monkey. They believe that the infection has always existed among people, it just used to be common only among residents of isolated tribes in Central Africa. The life expectancy of the natives rarely exceeded 30 years and death at a young age did not attract attention.
As civilization penetrated into the hard-to-reach corners of the “dark continent,” the virus escaped from its natural habitat, where it came to the attention of doctors.
This theory seems less likely than the previous one, but it is also supported by some reputable scientists.
Scientists' error theory
There are also theories that explain the appearance HIV human actions. One of the most popular such hypotheses was proposed by British researcher Edward Hooper.
Hooper believes the virus was caused by a mistake by scientists who developed the polio vaccine in the 1950s. To create the drug, they used chimpanzee liver tissue that could have been infected SIV(analogue HIV in chimpanzees).
In support of this theory, the researcher cites the following fact: the most high level infections are observed in those regions of Africa where the vaccine was tested.
The theory has many supporters, but if we accept it, then we must admit that hundreds of millions of people around the world are potentially infected - everyone who received the new vaccine.
Theory of secret developments
In the late 1980s, information periodically flashed in the press that the origin AIDS a - the work of secret laboratories USA in the 1970s. Supposedly there HIV was obtained as a result of complex genetically engineered mutations. Few people paid serious attention to these publications.
Meanwhile, this version is by no means as incredible as it might seem. There are a number of studies that reliably confirm that the virus could have been created artificially.
The emergence of AIDS on our planet is still shrouded in secrets and legends. For many years, neither scientists nor doctors can answer where the disease came from. The medical community believes that resolving this historical issue will help create a cure for HIV and save millions of lives.
It is unlikely that scientists will be able to reliably determine when AIDS appeared and how HIV developed in the Homo Sapiens population. If in the past people died from AIDS, then the cause of death was indicated differently. Studies of the remains of a resident of the Congo who died of an unspecified disease in 1959 indicate that, most likely, fatal outcome specifically from HIV infection. With what degree of probability can we say that even before 1959 people? At that time, no research was carried out, and no one knew about the new incurable disease. Brief History the emergence of AIDS confirms this theory - back in the 1970s, in several countries in Africa and Europe, there were cases of incomprehensible and strange deaths in young and previously healthy people. Many years later, doctors confirmed the appearance of a virus that causes immunodeficiency and retrospectively assessed the cause of death from AIDS.
Discovery of HIV
HIV has always existed
The hypothesis about the nature of HIV is associated with the first cases of AIDS in Africa, where there are still tribes living isolated from society and civilization. Scientists suggest that AIDS has always existed in the tribes of Africa. The life expectancy of the indigenous people did not exceed 30 years. No one knows what the inhabitants of the continent were sick with and what they died from, because Africans never go to doctors and do not allow doctors or scientists to approach them. According to the hypothesis, the natives infected other inhabitants of Africa - the spread of infection with an HIV-infected partner. It is impossible to prove or disprove such a theory, but many world-famous scientists support exactly this version of the emergence of AIDS about the world.
Man infected with HIV from monkey
The assumption that humans are infected from monkeys has scientific evidence. Many studies and experiments have been carried out. a virus suspected of causing AIDS has been identified. The detected virus is very similar to a human retrovirus. According to scientists, human infection occurred around 1930. This period coincides with the active extermination of monkeys. Perhaps eating meat with animal blood led to infection. More daring speculations refer to sexual contact with primates with AIDS.
Virus mutation theory
The theory overlaps with the hypothesis of human infection from a monkey, but this fact occurred millions of years ago. Then SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) entered the human body and over many years mutated, turning into HIV - human immunodeficiency virus. This theory is proven by the ability of a retrovirus to quickly change and adapt to external conditions, for example, during treatment with antiretroviral drugs.
Theory about scientists' mistakes
In the 1950s, scientists tried to create a polio vaccine using monkey liver. An assumption arose that something went wrong during development, and the vaccine actually infected people with AIDS. The hypothesis is confirmed by the high incidence of immunodeficiency in Africa, where test vaccination of residents was carried out. But if this theory is correct, then the number of infected people in the world should be many times higher. The polio vaccination became mandatory, and almost every second inhabitant of the earth received it.
Theory of secret developments
Not long ago, a hypothesis appeared about the artificial creation of the virus by geneticists from the United States. The military tried to develop biological weapons to destroy human immunity. This theory contains more secrets and questions, but all studies of the retrovirus indicate the impossibility of excluding the laboratory origin of the causative agent of immunodeficiency. This version, oddly enough, has large number followers, and the scientific search for evidence is still ongoing in many countries of the world, except the USA.
Theories about the origins of HIV and AIDS can be divided into two categories. The first category includes those according to which HIV is a relatively harmless virus (if it exists at all) and does not cause AIDS. Proponents of these theories argue that the causes of illness and death in people are completely different, for example, the toxic effects of drugs used to treat HIV, poverty, starvation and chronic diseases. Denial of the existence of AIDS is held, for example, by Peter Duesberg, Robert Root-Bernstein and Kary Mullis, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 for developing the polymerase method. chain reaction(PCR).
The second category is the so-called. conspiracy theories according to which it is believed that HIV is a man-made virus that entered the human environment as a result of an accident or malicious intent, where it carries out its destructive work.
The accidents primarily include theories about contaminated vaccines, such as those for polio and hepatitis B.
Former BBC correspondent Edward Hooper, in his book "The River", discussed in detail the theory of an oral vaccine for childhood polio. Hooper believes that HIV-1 is a mutation of the SIV virus, which spreads among chimpanzees, and in In her book, she claims that virologist Dr. Hilary Koprowski, who worked at the Philadelphia Wistar Research Institute, used the kidneys of monkeys infected with the SIV virus to make the vaccine. This experimental vaccine was later used in the Belgian Congo for forced vaccination. millions of local residents. Edward Hooper's theory is supported by many famous scientists who provided their evidence. At the same time, many scientists provided evidence refuting this theory.
Dr. Alan Cantwell in his book "AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic and Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot" claims that HIV is a genetically modified virus created by US scientists, which entered the human environment experimentally through vaccination against hepatitis B, which was carried out among bi- and homosexual men in major US cities in 1978 - 1981. Similar theories were developed by Dr. Robert. B. Strecker, Matilde Krim and Milton William Cooper.
Often, the credibility of conspiracy theories is enhanced by the fact that they are supported by famous and respected people. For example, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai is said to have said that AIDS is a biological weapon produced by the developed world to destroy the black race. However, he later denied that he had said this.
Jakob Segal, a former professor at Humboldt University, believed that HIV was created in the military laboratories of Fort Detrick in the United States by combining the genetic materials of two viruses - Visna and HTLV-1. According to this theory, a new virus - HIV - was created in 1977-1978 and tested on prisoners who agreed to the experiments in the hope of early release. Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, on the other hand, believes that HIV is a biological weapon that can be used for population control.
There are similar theories that claim that HIV was created in US military laboratories, and then it was deliberately infected with American soldiers and sent to Africa - to infect the black race and slow down the development of African countries.
Anti-black conspiracy theories are still common in the United States today. Adding fuel to the fire are references to many unethical human experiments and medical studies in the past. The most famous of these is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which followed the natural progression of syphilis in African-American men from 1932 to 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA. Study participants received no treatment, although penicillin has been used since 1947 - classical and effective medicine against syphilis, which is still used today.
As for those who deny the existence of AIDS, today there is enough material to prove the existence of both HIV and the associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV and AIDS also meet all the conditions established in 1890 by the famous German scientist Robert Koch (the so-called Koch's postulates), which confirm the connection between the causative agent and the disease. These are the following postulates:
- the causative agent of the disease must be present in each case of the disease;
- the causative agent of the disease must be isolated and grown in pure culture;
- if you infect a sensitive organism with a pathogen, it must cause the same disease;
- in an infected body, the pathogen can be found and isolated again.
To reassure conspiracy theorists, science was not so advanced in the 1970s that anyone could artificially create HIV. In connection with HIV, a huge amount of blood serum taken for other purposes and stored for many years has been studied. The earliest blood sample contaminated with human immunodeficiency virus was collected in Kinshasa (Congo, Africa) in 1959. This confirms that HIV is not a new virus. Modern molecular genetic technologies confirm that, most likely, HIV passed to humans from monkeys (apparently through contact with monkey blood) in 1910-1930. The disease is believed to have originated in Central Africa, from where it was spread to Haiti, and from there to the United States in the late 1960s.
Read more:
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Phases of development of HIV infection
More than 20 years ago, an epidemic of the most terrible and incomprehensible viral disease of our time - AIDS - began in the world. Its contagiousness, rapid spread and incurability earned the disease the fame of the “plague of the twentieth century.”
History of origin
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is a fatal disease for which there is currently no cure.
Some scientists believe that the HIV virus was transmitted from monkeys to humans around 1926. Recent research suggests that humans acquired the virus in West Africa. Until the 1930s, the virus did not manifest itself in any way. In 1959, a man died in the Congo. Later research by doctors who analyzed his medical history showed that this may have been the first case of death from AIDS recorded in the world. In 1969, the first cases of the disease with symptoms of AIDS were recorded among prostitutes in the United States. Then doctors did not pay much attention to them, considering them a rare form of pneumonia. In 1978, symptoms of the same disease were discovered among gay men in the United States and Sweden, as well as among heterosexual men in Tanzania and Haiti.
It was only in 1981 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that a new disease had been identified among young gay men in Los Angeles and New York. About 440 carriers of the HIV virus have been identified in the United States. About 200 of these people died. Since most of the patients were homosexuals, the new disease was called “Gay Related Immuno Deficiency (GRID)” or “A Gay Cancer.”
On June 5, 1981, an American scientist from the Center for Disease Control, Michael Gottlieb, first described a new disease that occurs with deep damage to the immune system. A thorough analysis led American researchers to the conclusion of the presence of a previously unknown syndrome, which in 1982 received the name Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom (AIDS) - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). At the same time, AIDS was called the disease of four “H”s, in capital letters. English words- homosexuals, hemophiliacs, Haitians and heroin, thereby highlighting risk groups for the new disease.
Immune deficiency (decreased immunity), from which AIDS patients suffered, was previously encountered only as a congenital defect of premature newborns. Doctors found that in these patients, the decrease in immunity was not congenital, but was acquired in adulthood.
In 1983, the French scientist Montagnier established the viral nature of the disease. He discovered remotely in a patient with AIDS lymph node virus, calling it LAV (lymphadenopathy associated virus).
On April 24, 1984, the director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, Dr. Robert Gallo, announced that he had found the true cause of AIDS. He managed to isolate the virus from the peripheral blood of AIDS patients. He isolated a retrovirus called HTLV-III (Human T-lymphotropic virus type III). These two viruses turned out to be identical.
In 1985, it was established that HIV is transmitted through body fluids: blood, semen, mother's milk. In the same year, the first HIV test was developed, on the basis of which HIV testing began in the USA and Japan donor blood and its drugs.
In 1986, Montagnier's group announced the discovery of a new virus, which was named HIV-2 (HIV-2). A comparative study of the genomes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 showed that, in evolutionary terms, HIV-2 is far removed from HIV-1. The authors suggested that both viruses existed long before the modern AIDS epidemic. HIV-2 was first isolated in 1985 from AIDS patients in Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands. Studies have shown that diseases caused by HIV-2 and HIV-1 are independent infections, since there are differences in the characteristics of the pathogens, clinical picture and epidemiology.
In 1987, the World Health Organization approved the name of the causative agent of AIDS - “human immunodeficiency virus” (HIV, or in the English abbreviation HIV).
In 1987, the WHO Global Program on AIDS was established and the World Health Assembly adopted a global strategy to combat AIDS. In the same year, the first antiviral drug, azidothymidine (zidovudine, retrovir), was introduced into the treatment of patients in a number of countries.
It must be emphasized that HIV and AIDS are not synonymous. AIDS is a broader concept and means immunity deficiency. This condition can occur as a result of a variety of reasons: chronic debilitating diseases, exposure to radiation energy, in children with defects in the immune system and in elderly patients with involution immune defense, some medications and hormonal drugs. Currently, the name AIDS is used to refer to only one of the stages of HIV infection, namely its manifest stage.
HIV infection - new infectious disease, called before the discovery of its causative agent as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV infection is a progressive anthroponotic infectious disease, with a blood-contact mechanism of infection, characterized by specific damage to the immune system with the development of severe immunodeficiency, which is manifested by secondary infections, malignant neoplasms and autoimmune processes.
Source HIV infection is a person with AIDS or an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. The main mechanism of infection transmission is blood contact. The disease is transmitted through sexual contact, especially homosexual; from an infected mother to a child during pregnancy through the placenta, during childbirth, during breastfeeding from mother to fetus; through razors and other sharp objects, toothbrushes, etc. HIV epidemiologists do not admit the existence of airborne and fecal-oral transmission routes, since the release of HIV from sputum, urine and feces is very insignificant, and the number susceptible cells in gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract.
There is also an artificial route of transmission: during therapeutic and diagnostic manipulations through the penetration of the virus through damaged skin, mucous membranes (transfusion of blood and its preparations, transplantation of organs and tissues, injections, operations, endoscopic procedures, etc.), artificial insemination, at intravenous administration drugs, performing various types of tattoos.
The risk group includes: passive homosexuals and prostitutes, who are more likely to suffer damage to the mucous membranes in the form of microcracks. Among women, the main risk group is drug addicts who inject drugs intravenously. Among sick children, 4/5 are children whose mothers have AIDS, are infected with HIV, or belong to known risk groups. The second place in frequency is occupied by children who have undergone blood transfusions, the third place is taken by patients with hemophilia, medical personnel who have professional contact with the blood and other biological fluids of HIV-infected patients.
The immunodeficiency virus can exist in the human body for ten to twelve years without showing itself in any way. And many people do not pay due attention to the initial signs of its manifestation, mistaking them for symptoms of others, which at first glance are not dangerous diseases. If the treatment process is not started on time, the final stage of HIV - AIDS occurs. The immunodeficiency virus can become the basis for the development of other infectious diseases. Along with the risk of developing AIDS, the risk of other infectious diseases also increases.
Symptoms
The last stage - AIDS - occurs in three clinical forms: onco-AIDS, neuro-AIDS and infectious-AIDS. Onco-AIDS is manifested by Kaposi's sarcoma and brain lymphoma. Neuro-AIDS is characterized by various lesions of the central nervous system and peripheral nerves. As for infectious AIDS, it is manifested by numerous infections.
As HIV progresses to its final stage - AIDS - the symptoms of the disease become more obvious. People are being struck more and more often various diseases, such as pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, herpes virus and other diseases called opportunistic infections. They are the ones who lead to the most severe consequences. At this time, the immunodeficiency virus becomes a serious disease. It happens that the patient’s condition is so serious that the person is not even able to get out of bed. Such people most often are not even subject to hospitalization, but are at home under the care of people close to them.
Diagnostics
Main method laboratory diagnostics HIV infection is the detection of antibodies to the virus using an enzyme immunoassay.
Treatment
At the present stage of medical development, there is no medicine that can completely cure this disease. However, with timely initiation of HIV treatment, it is possible to postpone for a long time the transition of the immunodeficiency virus to the development of AIDS, and therefore prolong a more or less normal life for the patient.
Treatment regimens have already been developed that can significantly slow down the development of the disease, and since the infection lasts a long time in most cases, we can hope to create effective therapeutic agents during this time.