The culprit in the origin of AIDS (the origin and spread of HIV)
1. The origin of AIDS: The HIV virus originated from chimpanzees in Africa.
On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control announced five AIDS cases in its Morbidity and Mortality weekly magazine, which is one of the world’s official records on AIDS. The five patients, all young gay men, had a very rare form of “pneumocystis carinii pneumonia” that used to only occur in immunosuppressed patients. In July of that same year, an unusually aggressive form of cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, was discovered in 26 gay men in New York and California. This is an extremely rare malignant tumor originating in the mesenchymal tissue.
At the end of 1981, there were 270 cases of severe immunodeficiency among gay men, of which 121 died.
In 1982, this new disease was named “Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome”, or AIDS.
In 1985, an Argentine-American male patient who traveled to China died of respiratory failure and was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital. He was later confirmed to have died of AIDS. This is the first case of AIDS in China.
In the six years since AIDS was discovered, there is no cure.
By the end of 1986, of the nearly 29,000 Americans diagnosed with AIDS, approximately 25,000 had died.
In 1999, researchers discovered the SIV virus in an African chimpanzee, which is almost identical to the AIDS virus in humans. At the same time, combined with the serum collected from Uganda, Africa, which was preserved in the American laboratory in the 1980s, HIV antibodies were also detected. Therefore, researchers believe that the first cases of HIV infection were in Africa, where chimpanzees infected humans.
How does the SIV virus in chimpanzees infect humans?
Currently, the most widely accepted theory is the “Hunter” theory.
In the 1920s, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, local residents hunted chimpanzees for food, which also opened the Pandora’s box of HIV. At that time, Congo was a colony of Belgium, where many gold miners and sex workers gathered, which created conditions for the spread of HIV in a small area. HIV then spread to North America through the blood transfusion industry and unprotected sex.
2. The status of AIDS in China: AIDS is spreading rapidly from high-risk groups to ordinary people.
According to the estimates of WHO and UNAIDS, there are currently more than 76 million HIV-infected people in the world, of which 2/3 HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost every 20 adults One in every human being has HIV. Currently, there are new HIV infections worldwide every day7,000 people died, of which only 1,500 people were added every day in southern Africa. Due to the lack of effective treatment for pregnant women, about 400,000 newborns are infected with HIV each year worldwide.
According to relevant statistics: In 2019, there were 71,204 cases of AIDS in my country and 20,999 deaths, with an incidence rate of 5.0986 and a mortality rate of 1.5036. According to the international standard of Youyou Resource Network, the disease is at a low prevalence level compared with other countries. However, due to the large population base in our country, although the infection rate is not high, the absolute number of infected people is still very large. According to the joint assessment of China CDC, UNAIDS and WHO, it is estimated that there are about 1.25 million HIV-infected people in China, and about 80,000 people are newly infected every year.
AIDS is spreading rapidly from high-risk groups to the general population, and sexual transmission has become the main route of transmission. At the same time, the regional distribution of AIDS in my country varies greatly. A total of 86.3% of the counties and cities reported AIDS cases, and the top six provinces with the highest number of reported cases accounted for about 80% of the total number of cases in the country, namely Yunnan, Henan, Guangxi, Xinjiang, Guangdong and Sichuan.
3. AIDS transmission: Condoms are by far the most effective AIDS prevention tool.
At present, the main transmission routes of AIDS are sexual contact transmission, mother-to-child transmission and blood transmission, and there are some other transmission routes, such as iatrogenic transmission and occupational exposure of medical staff.
Among them, sexual transmission is the main mode of transmission, and male homosexuality is the main mode of transmission. Why? Before answering this question, we need to emphasize that homosexuality does not equal AIDS, and homosexuality itself has nothing to do with the spread of AIDS. But AIDS is indeed prevalent in some gay men, which is mainly related to the sexual behavior of gay men.
First of all, since gay men use the *** rectum instead of women*** when having sex, since the rectal mucosa is more * The wall is much weaker, and the limited extension of the male sex organs in the rectum of the vagina will cause damage to the rectal mucosa, resulting in laceration and bleeding, so that pathogens in the vagina and blood can directly infect each other through the wound.
Secondly, because gay men are a minority. Therefore, they are more likely to have sex within a limited social circle, leading to a sharp increase in the incidence and transmission rates of this group of people.
So gay men are more likely to transmit sexually-related diseases than heterosexuals. If unprotected sex occurs, the infection rate of gay men is 5-15 times that of men and men under the same conditions, and 16-30 times that of women and men under the same conditions.
How to effectively reduce the spread of AIDS? At present, condoms are the safest, most economical and most effective tool for preventing AIDS. Proper use of venom can reduce the probability of HIV infection by 99.9%. Therefore, when it is not clear whether the other party is infectedIn the case of HIV, it is important to adhere to the correct use of anti-inflammatory drugs.
But if high-risk sex occurs without safety measures, is there any chance of redress? The answer is yes! After assessing the possible risk of infection, immediately contact the CDC to ask about HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. Generally, the blocking drug is taken within 72 hours (the sooner it is taken, the better the effect), and taken for 28 consecutive days, the probability of blocking failure is only about 0.5%, and the success rate of blocking is very high. But once the blockade fails or other reasons are not taken, HIV infection is almost 100%.
What needs to be clear here is: blocking preventive medication after exposure must not be a reason to indulge yourself!
Since AIDS can be transmitted through blood, can mosquito bites transmit AIDS?
Here we can tell you responsibly that mosquitoes cannot transmit AIDS.
Scientists have conducted research on this,
First, the research team was unable to isolate HIV gene fragments from mosquitoes in AIDS-prevalent areas (such as sub-Saharan Africa), indicating that HIV Will not survive and reproduce inside mosquitoes.
Secondly, after the research team inoculated HIV into the mosquito’s chest, there was no virus replication in the mosquito for more than 28 days, which also shows that HIV will not survive and reproduce in the mosquito.
In addition, the research team collected mosquitoes after biting HIV-infected people and found that the amount of HIV remaining in the mouths of these mosquitoes was very small. The amount of blood left in the mouthparts of lice and mosquitoes is only 0.0007 ml and 0.0004 ml each time they suck blood. In fact, it is basically impossible to cause the next person to be infected.
So the AIDS virus will not survive and reproduce in mosquitoes, and mosquitoes will not transmit AIDS.
Finally, it should be emphasized that although AIDS can be transmitted from mother to child, AIDS mothers may also give birth to healthy babies. At present, antiretroviral treatment, safe midwifery, rational feeding and other interventions can be taken to prevent the transmission of HIV to infants during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum breastfeeding.
In 2000, Shenzhen took the lead in launching a pilot project to prevent the spread of AIDS. From 2012 to 2016, it helped more than 300 HIV-positive mothers give birth to healthy babies.
AIDS is an infectious disease, not a genetic disease. Without intervention measures, the probability of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is 15% to 45%. Effective comprehensive interventions can control the rate of mother-to-child transmission to less than 0.5%.