• Question: where did aids come from

    Asked by SPEC BOY to Christie, Dan, David, Dawn, Sian on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Christie Waddington

      Christie Waddington answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an infectious disease that originates from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Originally though, the virus came from chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in Africa and was actually SIV (Simian immunodeficiency virus), which eventually mutated to HIV. Scientists believe the strain that spread rapidly through humans was HIV-1 group M.

      But how does HIV become AIDS? There are 3 stages to HIV infection.
      1. Acute infection – The virus is replicating itself loads so there are large numbers of the virus in the body. You usually get symptoms similar to the flu.

      2. Clinical latency – The virus is still replicating itself, just very slowly. The flu-like symptoms disappear too. People can be in this stage for average of 10 years.

      3. AIDS – special immune cells called T cells start to decrease, particularly CD4+ cells. If the number of these cells falls below 200 cells/mm3 of blood then you have AIDS.

    • Photo: Dawn Lau

      Dawn Lau answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      I’m not sure I could add anything to Christie’s answer 🙂

    • Photo: Sian Thomas

      Sian Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      I agree with Dawn – text book answer Christie – thanks.

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