The origin of the HIV-AIDS epidemic century

The origin of AIDS and HIV has hurt scientists since the first cases were discovered in the early 80s of the last century.

35 years ago, American doctors first encountered a scary and mysterious virus called HIV, the culprit who killed young people, energized by undermining their already healthy immune system. they.

At that time, HIV seemed to be a frightening disaster, appearing unexpectedly and of unknown origin. Today's scientific progress provides a closer look at how and why HIV virus causes AIDS to become a global pandemic.

Prostitution has inadvertently helped this dangerous epidemic spread throughout the world. The role of trade, the collapse of colonialism and social and political changes in the 20th century also contributed significantly to the outbreak of AIDS.

HIV, according to scientific research, may be derived from SIV virus, which causes immunodeficiency in monkeys and apes in western Central Africa. From these primates, the virus spreads to humans in a variety of ways, one of which may be the wild meat that Africans still hunt for food.

According to observers, some HIV-infected patients have relatives of the virus found on small monkeys sooty manabey living in Africa. But the virus that appears in this monkey species does not become a global problem.

SIV immunodeficiency virus, a relative of HIV, causes disease in monkeys.(Photo: Science Picture Co / SPL).

There are relatives closer to humans who are apes like gorilla or gibbons, but even if HIV originates from them, it does not cause a pandemic that humans face in the 20th century. derived from apes is HIV-1 type . In particular, cases of HIV-1 in group O are limited to West Africa.

In fact, only one strain of HIV spreads rapidly across a wide range of people. This strain, most likely derived from chimpanzees, is called the M-1 HIV group (main group). It is estimated that up to 90% of HIV infections are identified as belonging to group M HIV-1. This makes the question of science: "What is the M-group HIV-1 special?"

In response to this question in a 2014 study, the researchers gave a surprising answer: "The M group may not have any special characteristics."

M-group HIV has no special super-infectious ability as many people evaluate. Instead, this "opportunistic" virus takes advantage of the conditions to spread vigorously.

"Ecological conditions, which have a greater effect on evolutionary factors in promoting the rapid spread of HIV," said Nuno Faria, Oxford University, England.

Faria and her colleagues created a "family tree" for HIV by studying gene sequences collected from 800 HIV-infected people in Central Africa.

The genome acquires new mutations at a relatively stable rate, so by comparing two gene sequences and counting different points, scientists can determine the end of the two genomes that share a nest. common sense. This technique is widely used, typically in the study of the common ancestors of people and chimpanzees who lived at least 7 million years ago.

"ARN viruses such as HIV are about a million times faster than human DNA," Faria stressed. Evolution took place so rapidly that Faria and colleagues discovered HIV genomes with the same common ancestor no more than 100 years ago. From here, the estimated group, HIV-1 group M, is more likely to have an initial outbreak in the 1920s.

The begining

Not stopping there, researchers continue to trace the source of the disease. By understanding the location of previously collected samples of HIV specimens, the team went to the city where the first outbreak of HIV was Kinshasa, now the capital of the Republic of Congo.

After this discovery, the research direction is shifted from genetics to focusing on historical documents to explain why the epidemic in an African city triggers an explosion of global HIV storms.

A local band in Kinshaha.(Photo: NG).

Congo in the 1920s was a Belgian colony. Kinshasa, also known as Leopodville , has just been chosen as the capital of this Central African country. The city became a destination for young people looking for job opportunities, entailing demand and a huge supply of prostitution. HIV virus quickly flashes the opportunity to spread in the community.

Infectious disease is not limited to the city. Kinshasa was one of Africa's most dense traffic cities. The railway network with hundreds of thousands of people circulating each year facilitates viruses to be brought to other cities within 1,500 km in just 20 years. All conditions were prepared for the pandemic broke out in the 1960s.

The 60s of the last century began to carry a great change. Congo gained independence from Belgium and became a country with abundant employment for French speakers from countries around the world, including Haiti. Returning to the country, some Haitian youth carry the M-type B virus HIV-1 virus, helping the virus to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Go to America

HIV landed in the US in the 1970s, right at the start of the sexual revolution and homosexual ideology that made gay people focus on multi-ethnic cities like New York and San Francisco. This time, the virus causing immunodeficiency syndrome takes advantage of social and political factors to spread throughout the United States and throughout Europe.

"There is no reason that other types of HIV-1 virus groups of M type don't spread as fast as Type B, when considering similar environmental circumstances , " Faria said.

The story of the spread of HIV has not stopped there. In 2015, HIV re-emerged in rural Indiana, USA due to drug injection.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the HIV viral gene sequence and information on the timing, location of the attack, according to Yonatan Grad, from Harvard Public Health University, Massachusetts, USA. .

"This information further clarifies the scope of the impact of the epidemic and helps the scientific world to understand when medical intervention will be effective , " Grad said.

A cell is infected with HIV.(Photo: Sebastian Kaulitzki / SPL).

This approach is also effective for other infectious diseases, according to the BBC. In 2014, Grad and his colleague Marc Lipsitch published the results of a survey on the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhea throughout the United States.

From representative samples collected from individuals separate from different sexual trends in different cities and at different times, scientists concluded that gonorrhea virus resistance has spread from the shore. West to the east coast of the United States .

In addition, they can confirm that drug resistance seems to spread mainly in men who have sex with men. This is the foundation for strengthening screening in high-risk groups in the community, to curb the rate of epidemic spread.

The community prism, besides genetic factors, is an indispensable factor in the study of serious infectious diseases such as HIV and drug-resistant contraband, to gain a deeper understanding to prevent and control outbreaks.