The year 1981Reagan was presidentMorbidity and Mortality and Report:Oct 80-May 81: homosexuals were treated for pneumocystis pneumonia , also had a virus and mucosal infection in lungsIn Los AngelesDr. Michael Gottleib treated the first patient31 year old gay man, shortness of breathonly seen in patients with damaged immune systemsno helper or CD4 t cells – leaves the person open to infectionsStrange DiseasesKaposi’s sarcoma: (KS) relatively benign cancer that tends to occur in older peopleViral induced skin lesionPreviously it was only seen in older men, as you get older, immune system loses strengthVirus is present its whole life and the virus can copy itselfJuly 1981: 41 cases of aggressive KS occurred amongst young gay men in NY and LAToo much of something that is relatively rareIncrease in # of cases of rare lung cancer in CA and NYPatient called for a refill of a drug that ususally cured in 10 days – pentamidine – immune system was crashingVirally induced cancer – cancer that might be contagiousThe Story UnfoldsApril 22, 1984: Dr Mason of the CDC says he has the cause of AIDSResearchers at Pasteur instititue discovered the virus the previous yearApril 23, 1984: US health and human services secretary Margaret Heckler announced that Dr. Robert Gallo of the NCI had isolated the AIDS virus HTLV – IIISaid they hoped to have a vaccine in two yearsAIDS Activism in the early 80sReagan administration was distanced from the diseaseEarly activists were HIV gay men fighting for their livesFelt that their life was on the lineSuccessful in getting more research doneMotivated because their friends were dyingWhat is AIDSAcquired: you can get infected with it – not inheritedImmune deficiency: weakness in the body’s system that fights diseasesSyndrome: group of health problems that make up a diseaseDie from secondary infectionsNot everyone who has HIV detected in them will develop AIDSDeath by AIDS: 2 million per yearDistributionMajority sub-Saharan Africa heterosexual transmissionHomosexual population woke us up to this epidemic and got funding for researchHomosexual transmission is the minorityIntravenous drug transmission is high in AfricaMaternal to child, infected blood, infected organs affects younger peopleMajority of HIV positive individuals live in the developing world67% sub-Saharan Africa15 million AIDS orphansCritics of HIV AIDS causationPeter H. DuesbergFirst person to identify oncogeneExpertise is retroviruses – start as RNA and copy to DNAKary MullisPolymerase chain reactionTesting people for HPV and HIV happen through this techniqueProposed that they are brought on by long term recreational sue of recreational drugs and or AZTImmune system breakdown in Africa can be explained by malnutrition, poor drinking water, and infection overloadRetroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive, because after reverse transcription from RNA to DNA they depend on cell division to replicateSouth African president Thabo Mbeki voiced support for this and lose all support from countryVirus can’t cause a syndromeRefused to let HIV fighting drugs into South AfricaMeant to prevent transmitting drugs to mothers having childrenIncreased plasma RNA concentration, proportion of patients who develop AIDS within 6 years increasesHIV has been isolated from every person with AIDS and has been cultured or confirmed by molecular techniquesAccidental expusre to HIV in lab workers resulted in the development of AIDS (no other risk factors present)Stuck themselves with a needle that had HIVAnimal models of human AIDSMonkeys and miceHIV-1 and HIV-21984, researchers discover the primary causative viral agent, HIV-11986 – second type of HIV, HIV-2 was isolated from AIDS patients in West AfricaBoth 1 and 2 have the same modes of transmission and are associated with similar opportunistic infections and AIDSIn HIV2 immunodeficiency develops more slowly and tends to be milderHIV2 infected individuals are less infectious early in the course of infectionHIV1 and HIV 2 also differ in geographic patterns of infection; the US has few reported cases of HIV 2Monkeys and HIVTwo strains of SIV came together in chimps who had eaten monkeys containing different strains of the virusThe viruses DNA merged together forming HIV1Passed to humans through handling of contaminated chimp fleshIn Feb 1999, SIVcpz that was almost identical to HIV1 was found in chimpsThe strain was identified in a frozen sample taken from a sub group of chimps once common in west –central AfricaResearchers claimed that this sample proved that chimps were the source of HIV1Theory: wild chimps simultaneously infected with 2 different SIV which had “viral sex” forming a third virus that could be passed on to other chimps and was capable of infecting humans and causing AIDSViral sex: highly pathogenic avian strain combines with human strain and produces newly highly pathogenic human strainHow did HIV Cross Species?The Hunter Theory: SIVcpz was transferred to humans as the result of chimps being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunterOral Polio Vaccine theory: virus was transferred through the polio vaccineKidney cells were taken from local chimps infected with SIVcmzFebruary 2000, the Wistar Institute tested an old vial of polio vaccine; no HIV or chimp SIV was foundMacaque monkey kidney cells were used for the vaccine, not cmzHow did HIV Spread in Humans?The contaminated Needle theory: African healthcare professionals reused needles; could have transferred HIV from hunters to populationColonialism Theory: harsh labor camps, lack of food, poor sanitation, weakened immune system could lead to HIV if SIV infected chimp was eatenConspiracy Theory: HIV is man-made as bioweapon, mainly to wipe out minorities and homosexualsIgnores the clear link between SIV and HIV or the fact that the virus had been identified in people as far back as 1959Lack of genetic-engineering technology available to create the virus at the time that AIDS first appearedEarliest known instances of HIV infectionPlasma sample taken in 1959 from an adult male living in what is now the Democratic Republic of CongoHIV found in tissue samples fro man American teenager who died in St. Louis in 1969HIV found in tissue samples from a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976HIV1 might have been introduced into humans around the 1930sHIV2 is thought to come from the SIV in Sooty Mangabeys rather than chimpsIn May 2003, a group of
View Full Document
Unlocking...