Hi B50,
You are right. This article does indeed show that the HIV virus did originate from monkeys and chimps:
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The Origin Of AIDS And HIV -- And The First Cases of AIDS
http://www.avert.org/origin-aids-hiv.htm
The origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what is the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?
The first recognised cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (more about this period can be found on our History of AIDS page). A number of gay men in New York and California suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome.
The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to acknowledge the connection (and indeed some remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV causes AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out how, when and where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.
What happened in 1999?
In February 1999 a group of researchers from the University of Alabama announced that they had found a type of SIVcpz that was almost identical to HIV-1. This particular strain was identified in a frozen sample taken from a captive member of the sub-group of chimpanzees known as Pan troglodytes troglodytes (P. t. troglodytes), which were once common in west-central Africa.
The researchers (led by Paul Sharp of Nottingham University and Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama) made the discovery during the course of a 10-year long study into the origins of the virus. They claimed that this sample proved that chimpanzees were the source of HIV-1, and that the virus had at some point crossed species from chimps to humans.
Their final findings were published two years later in Nature magazine2. In this article, they concluded that wild chimps had been infected simultaneously with two different simian immunodeficiency viruses which had "viral sex" to form a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps and, more significantly, was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDS.
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My original understanding of the origin seems to have come from early reporting which was not altogether accurate, as shown in thie article:
History Of AIDS: 1987-1992
http://www.avert.org/aids-history87-92.htm
In the autumn, a book by Randy Shilts called "And the Band Played On'"was published, which chronicled the early years of the AIDS epidemic.35 Shilts' book made an important contribution to documenting the history of AIDS, but his view of "the facts about AIDS," as well as his opinions, differ greatly from others on a number of occasions.
Shilts was the first to identify a French-Canadian flight attendant called Gaetan Dugas as "Patient Zero." Shilts claimed that Gaetan Dugas played a key role in the early spread of AIDS in America, and the story of "Patient Zero" was widely publicised by the media. But there never was a Patient Zero.
"There's no Patient Zero. It's lots and lots people moving around from New York to San Francisco, and the rest of the world. If there ever was an original Patient Zero, it would have been back in the mid-Seventies. But there isn't an original Patient Zero." -- Andrew Moss Quote from "The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: the medical response, 1981-1984," Volume II, an oral history conducted 1992, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
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God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
