l have always read that it came from monkeys and lay dormant..
But have read on here that some people say that is was not...
Oxo..l think genes and viruses mutate although l am not a specialist. Have you read about the Ebola disease ? Old diseases disappear and new ones appear..how ? l do not know...

Thank you so much Ryan for your explanation. It is enlightening. l have read about ''weird'' practices done in Africa from people suffering from Aids like having sex with virgin girls etc..truly mind boggling.

l guess there are always those who do not trust at all and readily grasp conspiracy theories for explanations.

Hi, Isabelle ,

The reason why people think that is because we have had no concrete evidence HIV originally came from African monkeys. However, there seems to be connection between the HIV strain in those monkeys & the one that is infectious to humans. Both humans & monkeys immune system r under attack with little chance of winning against this virus in the long run. While other animals r resistant against this virus. Africa is where both HIV 1 & 2 originated from , HIV 1 is thought to come from chimpanzees & is highly virulent & globally infectious, while HIV 2 seems to confine to Africa only. But when the virus was found & compared to those in infected monkeys, there was some differences . But generally, the majority of scientists & medical experts agree thatHIV came from monkeys.

The main denial here is not about the originality of the virus, but the connection between HIV & AIDS. Some said that HIV does not lead to AIDS which is totally untrue. This came from some sporadic & uncertified & unrealiable experiments conducted by some scientists. The highest prevalence of population that seem to believe in this twisted theory r South Africans where even though it is a highly developed country, HIV & deaths by AIDS still remain dangerously high. This is due to SA is government acceptance of this theory that protections & other methods against HIV r not widely practiced.


As for those who believe it was not , well they may be just misinformed & seem to be ignorant about what HIV really is ( their infecting pathways , their mechanisms & how they cause diseases) or they r simply choose to believe in a '' safer & better sounding '' theory. This is simply stupidity in some where something that they dont understand does not exist.

In the beginning, maybe the monkeys spread that disease. Now that human caught it, it is now the #1 leading source of spreading that dread disease. How that disease exactly transferred to human in the first place, is a very good question.