The Dubious Origins of AIDS

In the late 1970s, the AIDS epidemic broke out to take the lives of 20 million people across the globe. AIDS or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a fatal disease caused by a rapidly mutating retrovirus that attacks the immune system and leaves the victim vulnerable to infections, malignancies and neurological disorders.

The virus was isolated in 1984 and was ultimately named the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

A significant question, however, is to be raised: how did the AIDS virus suddenly originate to claim the lives of millions in so little time? The origin of AIDS is very controversial.

Green Monkey Theory

The green monkey theory provided the first explanation of the origin of AIDS. It implied that the virus originated from green monkeys in Africa and was later passed on to the local population either through acts of bestiality or through consuming them as food.

In this way AIDS was supposed to have spread in Africa and then from Africa to the whole world. However, on June 2, 1988, the Los Angeles Times published an article refuting the idea that the human AIDS virus originated from green monkeys.

It uncovered evidence that the DNA composition of AIDS was totally inconsistent with that of green monkeys. The monkey theory was proven wrong by researchers as far back as 1988, but most AIDS educators continued to promote it to the public until recently!!

Chimpanzee Theory

In a media blitz in 1999, the chimpanzee “out of Africa” theory replaced the green monkey theory, and the chimp origin of AIDS became- to a great extent- accepted by the scientific community.

In February 1999, it was announced that a group of researchers from the University of Alabama had studied frozen tissue from a chimpanzee and found that the simian virus it carried (SIV cpz ) was almost identical to HIV-1.

The chimpanzee came from a sub-group of chimpanzees known as Pan troglodytes, which were once common in west-central Africa. Thus, many scientists nowadays believe that the disease crossed species from chimpanzees to humans (BBC News). However, scientists are divided on how this might have happened.

In his famous book, The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and Aids, Ed Hooper argues that chimpanzees were used in vaccine development and produced evidence that this triggered the AIDS epidemic in humans. He believes that this happened deliberately or accidentally as a result of an experiment in 1957 where the kidneys of infected chimps were used to develop and manufacture polio vaccines (The Atlantic).

While other scientists agree that HIV was transmitted from chimpanzees to humans, they reject the hypothesis that this might have happened as a result of an experiment. After thorough investigations, those scientists found that chimp kidneys were never used to make polio vaccines and the vaccines were never contaminated with either the AIDS virus or anything resembling HIV-1.

They think that the virus crossed the species barriers from chimpanzees to humans naturally, the same way it was believed to have been transmitted from green monkeys to humans before 1988 (The Independent). In their so- called “cut-hunter” theory, scientists theorize that a chimp captured by a hunter transmitted the virus in a bite or scratch.

But chimps have been living in Africa and have been hunted by humans for centuries so why did the virus transmission process take place only in the late 70s, and why should AIDS be something peculiar to the 20th century?!! Actually, it is not necessarily clear that chimpanzees are the original reservoir for HIV-1 because chimpanzees are only rarely infected with SIV. It is therefore possible that both chimpanzees and humans have been infected from a third yet unidentified source.

Smallpox Vaccine Theory: Is AIDS Manmade?

There is another shocking hypothesis that traces the source of AIDS. According to this hypothesis, the real origin of the AIDS virus has nothing to do with green monkeys, chimpanzees, or African people.

On the contrary, the proponents of this hypothesis believe that AIDS is a biological agent that was genetically engineered in a laboratory, i.e., the AIDS virus was manmade.

On October 26, 1986, the Sunday Express ran a front-page story entitled “AIDS MADE IN LAB SHACK”. In this article, the distinguished physician, Dr. John Seal and Professor Jacob Seagull- retired director of the Institute of Biology at Berlin University- both concluded that the AIDS virus was manmade.

In addition, Alan Cantwell Jr., M.D. published two well-documented books, “AIDS and the Doctors of Death” (1988) and “Queer Blood” (1993) outlining the manmade origin of AIDS. “Queer Blood” won the Benjamin Franklin Book Award in 1994.

Moreover, William Campbell Douglas, M.D. -National Health Federation’s 1985 Doctor of the Year- published detailed explanations of the development of HIV and made it clear that the virus had been manufactured by scientists working at a US army biological laboratory at Fort Detric, near Frederic, Maryland (Sterling).

According to the smallpox vaccine theory -and like many other HIV origin theories that relate the origin of the virus to vaccination programs- the outbreak of AIDS was linked to various vaccine programs around the world. The internationally respected London Times published an article on its front-page on May 11 1987, entitled “Smallpox Vaccine Triggers AIDS”.

The article established a direct correlation between the smallpox vaccine administered by the World Health Organization to an estimated 50 to 70 million people in different Central African countries and the subsequent outbreaks of AIDS in those regions.

The theory points out that the U.S. government’s biological warfare research laboratory created HIV and deliberately transmitted it to Africans through the WHO smallpox vaccination program which was followed immediately by the first outbreak of AIDS on this planet—a remarkable coincidence. The London Times front-page headline has never been mentioned in the mainstream US media.

In this regard, it is worth mention that the US Senate library has a significant document. It is a record of the Appropriations Hearing that was held in July of 1969, where the Department of Defense specifically requested and received $10 million to develop “a synthetic biological agent that would impair or destroy the human immune system” (Sterling).

The smallpox vaccine theory is supported by a similar theory that relates AIDS to Hepatitis B (HB) vaccines, partly developed in chimpanzees. The hepatitis B vaccine was given to several thousand male homosexuals in New York and San Francisco in 1978. The fact is, every single person who received that vaccine contracted AIDS. That is what the first American victims of AIDS all had in common. They were receivers of the hepatitis B vaccine (Sterling).

HIV & Visna:

With genome mapping, the structure of HIV has been proven to be remarkably similar to a fatal sheep virus named Visna and to the non-fatal Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus, HTLV-I. Nearly 97% of the HIV genome is structurally similar to Visna, and the remaining portion corresponds exactly to the HTLV-I genome.

In addition, the symptoms of AIDS correspond to the combined effects of these two viruses. The relation of these two viruses cannot be explained through a natural evolution process; however, an artificial combination is a feasible explanation (Bromber).

Many scientists reject the AIDS conspiracy theory. They believe that considering HIV to be manmade is of no use. Nevertheless, it is definitely important to trace the real origin of AIDS whatever it may be, because identifying the origin should help in identifying a cure for the most horrifying disease ever.

However, none of the theories that try to explain the source of AIDS is agreed upon by all scientists; and the definite origin of HIV/AIDS is still one of medicine’s greatest mysteries.

References

Abdul Karim, “From the Shadows: Exposing the New World Order.” Cassette. Halaqa Media of UK.
Bromber, Z. ‘US Government Behind Deadly Virus’. The Observer, 26/2/1998
BBC News 1/2/1999 ‘Aids Origin Discovered’, www.bbc.co.uk.
BBC News 11/9/2000 ‘Scientists to Reveal Origin of Aids’, www.bbc.co.uk.
BBC News 4/6/2001 ‘Aids: 20 Years On’, www.bbc.co.uk.
Campbell D.W. “Aids: the End of Civilization.” 1989.
Cantwell, A. “The Secret Origin of Aids” 2000.
Cohen, J. ‘The Hunt for the Origin of Aids’. The Atlantic, October2000.
Seal, J. & Seagal, J. ‘Aids Made in Lab Shack’. Sunday Express, 26/10/1986.
Connor, S. ‘Scientists Dismiss Theory Linking Aids to Contaminated Polio Vaccine’. The Independent, 26/4/2001.
‘Smallpox Vaccine Triggers Aids’. London Times, 11/5/1987.
Steinbrook, R. ‘Research Refutes Idea That Human AIDS Virus Originated in Monkeys’. Los Angeles Times, 2/6/1988.
Sterling, R. 8/18/1999 ‘Aids was Manmade- The Men Who Blew the Whistle’, www.rense.com