HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus

The first recognized cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s . Gay men in New York and California began to develop a rare opportunistic infections and cancers, that was resistant to any treatment, know at that time.

HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus,was claim to be identified in 1983. The two species of the virus is, HIV-1 and HIV-2 . HIV-1, which is believed yo be responsible for the vast majority of the AIDS cases worldwide . It is divided into three groups, the "major" is group M, the much rarer "outlier" is group O and the "new" is called group N . HIV-2 is thought to come from SIV Simian Immunodeficiency Virus .


The Three of the earliest known HIV infection are :

1. A plasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in what now is know as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
2. A HIV tissue samples from an American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969.
3. A HIV tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976.


From
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9468138?dopt=Abstract

An African HIV-1 sequence from 1959 and implications for the origin of the epidemic.

Zhu T, Korber BT, Nahmias AJ, Hooper E, Sharp PM, Ho DD.

Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10016, USA.

There is considerable genetic diversity among viruses of different subtypes (designated A to J) in the major group of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the form of HIV that is dominant in the global epidemic. If available, HIV-1 sequences pre-dating the recognition of AIDS could be crucial in defining the time of origin and the subsequent evolution of these viruses in humans. The oldest known case of HIV-1 infection was reported to be that of a sailor from Manchester who died of an AIDS-like illness in 1959; however, the authenticity of this case has not been confirmed. Genetic analysis of sequences from clinical materials obtained from 1971 to 1976 from members of a Norwegian family infected earlier than 1971 showed that they carried viruses of the HIV-1 outlier group, a variant form that is mainly restricted to West Africa. Here we report the amplification and characterization of viral sequences from a 1959 African plasma sample that was previously found to be HIV-1 seropositive. Multiple phylogenetic analyses not only authenticate this case as the oldest known HIV-1 infection, but also place its viral sequence near the ancestral node of subtypes B and D in the major group, indicating that these HIV-1 subtypes, and perhaps all major-group viruses, may have evolved from a single introduction into the African population not long before 1959.

Million of Africans were given an oral polio vaccines (OPV) between 1957 and 1960. Few batches of the vaccines were "grown" in , Pan troglodytes troglodytes ,chimp cells at a lab in Kisangani, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The , Pan troglodytes troglodytes chimp cells, could have contained SIVs . [ HIV is a descendant of a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus because certain strains of SIVs bear a very close resemblance to HIV-1 and HIV-2 , the two types of HIV ]. This could have infected the vaccines that jumped into humans. "There are highly significant correlations between the places where this vaccine was administered and the places where AIDS first appeared on the planet .

From
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9989410

Gao F, Bailes E, Robertson DL, Chen Y, Rodenburg CM, Michael SF, Cummins LB, Arthur LO, Peeters M, Shaw GM, Sharp PM, Hahn BH.

Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 35294, USA.

The human AIDS viruses human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and type 2 (HIV-2) represent cross-species (zoonotic) infections. Although the primate reservoir of HIV-2 has been clearly identified as the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys), the origin of HIV-1 remains uncertain. Viruses related to HIV-1 have been isolated from the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), but only three such SIVcpz infections have been documented, one of which involved a virus so divergent that it might represent a different primate lentiviral lineage. In a search for the HIV-1 reservoir, we have now sequenced the genome of a new SIVcpzstrain (SIVcpzUS) and have determined, by mitochondrial DNA analysis, the subspecies identity of all known SIVcpz-infected chimpanzees. We find that two chimpanzee subspecies in Africa, the central P. t. troglodytes and the eastern P. t. schweinfurthii, harbour SIVcpz and that their respective viruses form two highly divergent (but subspecies-specific) phylogenetic lineages. All HIV-1 strains known to infect man, including HIV-1 groups M, N and O, are closely related to just one of these SIVcpz lineages, that found in P. t. troglodytes. Moreover, we find that HIV-1 group N is a mosaic of SIVcpzUS- and HIV-1-related sequences, indicating an ancestral recombination event in a chimpanzee host. These results, together with the observation that the natural range of P. t. troglodytes coincides uniquely with areas of HIV-1 group M, N and O endemicity, indicate that P. t. troglodytes is the primary reservoir for HIV-1 and has been the source of at least three independent introductions of SIVcpz into the human population.