What's the Origin of HIV?

Hi, I am doing a project about HIV and AIDS for my health class.
I am having trouble finding the origin of HIV. Does anyone know where it came from, how it was made, and if it was made by people?
And any other information you might think important please include.

Thanks,
-hoot-

No, it wasn't made by people: it evolved naturally, like all naturally occurring viruses and all living species have.

Computer "viruses" are created by people - biological viruses evolve.

HIV evolved from similar viruses called SIV, that commonly infect non-human primates. The main strains of HIV that cause AIDS in the world today (HIV-1 Group M) evolved about 80-100 years ago in Western Africa from very similar SIV strains (called SIVcpz) that infect chimpanzees.

It's very unlikely that the first person to get HIV from a chimp got it through sexual contact - chimps don't like having sex with humans and they are strong and have sharp teeth. It's more likely that it first spread from chimp to human through blood contact or a bite, perhaps during a hunting accident.

There's a good overview about what we know about HIV's origins in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_a...

The true history of the origin of the HIV-AIDS theory and the political and medical deception and cover-up as well as the origin and 'discovery' of the 'so called retrovirus' that causes AIDS (which has NEVER been isolated in the blood stream of anyone supposedly infected, or confirmed under an electron microscope but is instead based on a purely fantastic medical theory that came to be passed off as medical fact) and why such a retrovirus cannot and DOES NOT cause AIDS, is explained and the long history of the theoretical 'discovery' of the HTLV-3 human retrovirus in the link and original report by Ex-Senator Stephen Davis at the website: http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com...

See an additional link at: http://www.rethinkingaids.com
that details a host of scientists and persons who have come to realize that the drugs for HIV only further breaks down the immune system and have stopped taking the drugs.
Also see the free access to links at the yahoo group: HIV-AIDSMYTHSURVIVORS link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HIV-AIDSMY...

Bodhiman

ok it actually was a virus that exists in the relatives of human
BEFORE i answer do NOT put bestiality as the cause
hiv was "made" in africa, what happened is that aboreal creatures would have a strain of hiv that only infected aboreals, chimps and primates sometimes fed of the aboreal creatures, through sheer bad luck, the hiv virus mutated to one that could infect monkeys, therefore it branched over to the primates and the primates of africa became infected
next it branched over to the human, nobody had sex with a monkey
what happend is that the natives, afrikaaners and whoever else lived in africa around the time(i would guess mid 20th century) would actually eat raw monkay, specifically brain, of course one of the fluids where hiv is spread is blood, then just like the chimps, with bad luck the consumer of monkey meat obtained the virus then spread it to other humans

other important facts are
resaerch magic johnson
the movie phildelphia
the fluids where hiv is transferred, breast milk blood semen and vaginal secretions, NOT SALIVA
the virus is hiv, after it stops incubating and causing your body harm then it is called aids, u cant "get" aids, u get hiv, aids is a result from it
(like i cant get "the sick" but i can get "the influenza(virus)"

it is a retrovirus and has no dna, just rna
it follows the lytic path of infection by using reverse transcriptase(an enzyme) to bind its rna to the dna of its host, then it tricks the cell into creating more enzymes by inserting the genes that do so

the primary target of the HIV is the t cell(i believe it is the t-4 lymphocyte), there are only 200 of them in a matured person, each is for a specific family of pathogens, they create antibodies, when the hiv kills a certain percent you are considred to have aids

hiv dosent kill, the results of a weak immune system due, most commonly a cold that became pnuemonia

any contact with an hiv infected persons contanimated fluids is not a 100 % chance of spreading the infection, sometimes people get lucky

the virus isnt that durable, it dies in the atmosphere quickly and without a host it cant hibernate too long

the reason why it is so hard to kill is because it frequently mutates, therefore it cahnges its antigen coating, the thing which the t cells use to classify the pathogen, if the antigen coating keeps changing antibodies cant be produced

it can be treated not cured with anti retroviral drugs which helps prevent hiv from entering the cells, and repreoduce
these can restore a person back to normal but keep in miond they are still conatagious, and the drugs are costly

dont listen to jeremiah wright, un officals never administered hiv(not aids) to africa, it is so prevalent b/c it originated there