IN THE early 1980s, an epidemic caused by a new disease called AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) claimed the lives of countless men worldwide.
By 2021, more than 40 million people have died because of it, according to an estimate by the World Health Organisation.
AIDS is caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which progressively weakens the immune system, leaving it vulnerable to opportunistic infections.
Since it broke out more than four decades ago, there have been claims that the virus was man-made or that it was an experiment gone wrong.
On social media platforms, some users even suggest that HIV was created deliberately by certain intelligence agencies to be used as a bioweapon.
Are there truths to these claims?
Verdict:
FALSE
Scientists have traced the origin of HIV back to certain primates.
Their studies have shown that the diseases emerged naturally and were not a human creation.
There are two known types of HIV, namely HIV-1 and HIV-2.
HIV-1 is thought to have originated from chimpanzees, while HIV-2 came from monkeys.
It is estimated that 95% of people living with HIV have HIV-1 while the rest have HIV-2.
Several studies conducted from 1999 to 2015 found that chimpanzees were the primary reservoir of HIV-1.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a reservoir is a living host in which an infectious agent lives and grows.
Current evidence points to the remote corners of the Central African rainforest, where chimpanzees were hunted for food.
Humans might have contracted the virus through bites and cuts from the animals or the consumption of their meat.
However, the exact mechanisms of this cross-species transmission are still a subject of ongoing research.
While a cure has yet to be found, medical science has made significant progress since AIDS and HIV were first discovered.
The current treatment involves the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART), which uses a combination of medications to suppress virus replication.
This, in turn, will slow down the progress of infection by maintaining a low viral load and thus preserve the immune function.
ART helps an HIV patient to lead a normal life and significantly reduces their chances of transmitting the virus to others.
References:
1. https://www.who.int/data/
2. https://www.who.int/data/
3. https://www.who.int/news-
4. https://www.who.int/data/
5. https://www.cdc.gov/csels/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.
8. https://www.
