History of the Definition of AIDS

Phil Johnson, M.D. discusses the evolution of the definition of AIDS over time and how it evolved as scientific understanding of HIV and AIDS improved over time. Initially it was noticed due to unusual outbreaks of Kaposi's Sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia among young gay men and referred to as Gay Related Immune Deficiency. The virus now referred to as HIV was isolated in 1983 and the disease was renamed AIDS for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Today, being HIV positive and having either (a) a CD4 cell count below 200 or (b) one of a number of opportunistic infections results in a diagnosis of AIDS. This video is freely downloadable from http://www.archive.org/details/aidsvideos_definition . Visit http://www.GlobalLifeworks.org and http://AIDSvideos.org to learn more. [Do you want to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? Are you fluent in a language other than English? Then volunteer to translate our videos into other languages! Click http://AIDSvideos.org/translate.shtml to to learn how you can help!!! © Copyright 2007-2011 Global Lifeworks. All rights reserved. This work is licensed to be used for non-commercial purposes under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.]

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• hiv
• aids
• virus
• definition
• infection
• history

[elielsolis]

I heard Aids was a man made virus .

[AIDSvideos]

There's no evidence that HIV was created by humans. It has been found in stored blood samples as far back as 1959. At that time, humans hadn't even discovered retroviruses, much less developed the technology to design a new one. Genetic studies provide evidence that it jumped to humans from a similar virus in primates. For some old stored samples, we even have the clinical history of patients who died of then-unexplained symptoms which in retrospect were clearly clinical AIDS.

[trufbetold]

Great answer, thanks for clearing that up. You said that in 1959 we didn't have the have the knowledge or the technology to design a virus. Are you inferring that we do now?

[AIDSvideos]

I'm not asserting that we have the technology now to design a new virus from scratch. We now have the technology to construct a short viral genome like the polio virus from nucleotides, so we can "construct following a known template" for short genomes. If we can synthesize a given genome from base pairs, we can obviously also modify any nucleotides along it, so we can construct a mutated version. So now we're closer, and you can at least debate the point. But in 1959? Forget it!

[MIGUELSAGITTA]

@AIDSvideos What is truth? For it is said that in December 1981 detected the first case of AIDS in the world, if the June 5 of that year, first recognized in the USA. in 1988 he was appointed on December 1 st day of struggle against AIDS because that date was detected for the first time in the world, the better it would have placed the date as June 5? alguein I can clarify?

[AIDSvideos]

@MIGUELSAGITTA: No, it is not believed that the first case of AIDS in the world occurred in December 1981. Genetic studies indicated HIV-1 jumped from chimps to humans around 1931 and has been spreading exponentially since then. HIV has been found in stored human blood samples from decades before 1981. The Western medical community first noticed AIDS cases in the U.S. in the early 80s. They'd been happening in Africa and Haiti before then.

[coptersoisoi]

I grew up near Oakland across from San Francisco. I believe it was 1981 when I was sitting with a neighborhood friend when the news talked about it. My friend heard about it on thje news a day or two before. He said it was in LA first then showed up in San Francisco gay bath houses in the SoMa region (South of Market/South Slot). It was called GLID aka Gay Cancer, which was a type of SID (monkey AIDS). This fucked up the free love movement of SF. People were scared to have sex most of the 1980s

[100PercentGreen]

Many HIV conspiracy theorists never seem to acknowledge FIV and SIV. Sk8tergnome87 links the formation of computer viruses with viruses in nature. Oh the ignorance! With this reasoning every virus that affects humans (influenza, rhinoviruses, HPV, etc) were made by man because they "don't just pop up from nowhere". I'm not saying that this conspiracy is impossible, but when suggestions are used in place of evidence, and there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, their boldness is undeserved.

[100PercentGreen]

Many HIV conspiracy theorists never seem to acknowledge FIV and SIV. Sk8tergnome87 links the formation of computer viruses with viruses in nature. Oh the ignorance! With this reasoning every virus that affects humans (influenza, rhinoviruses, HPV, etc) were made by man because they "don't just pop up from nowhere". I'm not saying that this conspiracy is impossible, but when suggestions are used in place of evidence, and there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, their boldness is undeserved.

[AIDSvideos]

I wasn't influenced by "people with power." I was influenced by a study: Reeves JD, Doms RW. "Human immunodeficiency virus type 2." J Gen Virol. 2002 Jun;83(Pt 6):1253-65. Viruses *do* "pop up" all the time; look at SARS and novel H1N1. The fact that computer viruses are man-made doesn't mean that biological viruses are. Go to the AIDSvideos site and read "Myths" and "FAQ" for more info.

[MelanieLouM]

No...thats a lie created by black racists to discredit and demonize whites and to lessen personal responsibility. >:(

[barakHobama]

it was cultured by man and either spread by accident or to kill black people make your choice thoughs are the only two posiblitys