j----_. - New York Civil Liberties Union

Mahopac 306
SECTION 5:
ORIGIN OF THE AIDS VIRUS
( HIV seems likely to have originated in central Africa
.where serum samples from the early 1970's have been found to
show a high incidence of seropositivity. No confirmed serum
samples stored in the United States prior to 1978 have been
found to be seropositive. Although HIV appears to have been
present in Africa longer than in the United States the rising
incidence of cases in Africa suggests a new epidemic.
Ca~es were recorded in Haiti before the USA, and this may
have been due to the fact that migrant Haitian workers spent
periods of time in central Africa in the 1960's and 1970's
and some returned to their homeland. In the 1970's Haiti wa~
popular as a holiday resort for homosexual men from the USA.
Many patients in Europe and Australasia appear to have
contracted their infection in the USA. HIV is now epidemic
worldwide.
In the western world, the vast majority of cases are seen
in homosexual men, but in Africa both sexes are equally
affected. This, as well as cases after artificial
insemination, suggests that the virus is easily transmitted by
vaginal as well as anal intercourse.
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(Third World conditions may promote the disease. Among
them: the presence of feces in drinking water, the use and
reuse of unsterilized needles in m any small clinics and,
possibly, even local rituals that involve scarification and
the exchange of blood.
Squalid conditions, poverty and a semitropical environment
may also playa role in the high rate of AIDS in Haiti and, in
parts of southeastern Florida. Belle Glade (pop.. 19,000),
Fla. with 46 cases, has the highest incidence in the U.S.
"There is raw sewage on the ground and rats running all
around," says Dr. Mark Whiteside of Miami's Tropical Medicine
Clinic. Filth, insects and a high rate of tuberculosis, he
suggests, might contribute to the epidemic.
The prevalence of the AIDS virus in central Africa has led
researchers to speculate that the disease originated on that
continent.· Harvard's· Essex believes the scourge got its start
in monkey., specifically the African green monkey. In
sampling the blood of 200 greens from this region, Essex found
that 70' of them were infected with a virus similar to the one
that causes AIDS in humans. Curiously, the virus does not
seem to harm the monkeys, a fact that might hold important
clues for future research. I Essex suspects that in the past 20
to 40 years, the virus spread from monkeys to man. Other
viruses have made this leap - notably jungle yellow fever
virus - and, he notes, the greens often live in close
association with people and frequently bite them.
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