Monday, March 5, 2012

How was AIDS created?

Actually, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was not created in the sense that someone intentionally brought it into being. The first recorded cases of Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome are from the 1920s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is believed that HIV is an infectious disease which previously affected only chimpanzees but "crossed species." Humans and chimpanzees are part of the same order of primates and are relatively close cousins in the big picture of evolution, so it is possible that this virus had mutated in such a way from the chimpanzee form that it was also viable in humans. 


AIDS is a long-term effect of being HIV positive. People who have HIV have a more difficult time fighting off the kinds of infections and bacteria we're exposed to every day. For someone with HIV, a common cold could be a serious illness. When someone's immune system becomes so weakened by repeated infections, they are said to have AIDS. As medicine advances, HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Many people with HIV live long, happy, and relatively healthy lives with treatment. 

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