Was the Aids Virus the result of an experiment gone Bad?

Question

There's been talk regarding this devastating epidemic, which I have heard it was a virus created through an experiment. Some say it was used as a biological weapon....there are many theories....what have you heard or know?

Answer 1

i believe it was created, i doubt that 1 single monkey or a group of monkeys in africa infected a group of ppl who then infected the rest of the world

Answer 2

There is only one absolute fact concerning the HIV / AIDs epidemic - IF it was indeed the "result of an experiment gone bad" - no one, but NO ONE, will ever own up to it, and you can bet the farm that there is no longer any paper trail or evidence to verify this speculation.

Who knows what goes on in the anti-viral laboratories around the globe. I would like to imagine that no one would be fool hardy enough to purposely try to develop a virus strain that absolutely devastates the human immune system.
I strongly suspect it is a virus mutation that simply migrated from other primates to humans.

Answer 3

I saw a report on TV about a theory for the origin of the AIDS that has not been told by other answerers. In the 1950s an american scientist was banned from practice in the USA because he had made experiments on mentally retarded people. He moved to Africa where he starts manufacturing Polio vaccines using monkey's brain cell cultures. That's how the simian immunodeficiency virus was transmitted to human (according to this theory) The places where the first cases of AIDS were seen matched very well with the area where he vaccinated people. As he vaccinated a lot of people this explains that the rise of this disease was so fast. So AIDS was not genetically engineered but is the result of an experiment gone wrong.

Answer 4

If it were, could you really prove it either way? This question, along with others such as "Is there a cure for cancer but it isn't being developed because otherwise drug companies will go broke?" all follow along the same lines - that there is more to the world than we know about. Although true, these questions take the idea to the extreme. Every year, billions of research dollars are spent divising new and better strategies to combat HIV and the hundreds of different types of cancers. There is also research in using retroviruses like HIV and herpes to deliver genetic payloads for gene therapy strategies. However, it is extremely unlikely that researchers are smart enough to create a retrovirus as good as HIV (no offense to researchers if you are one). In addition, given that there are so many different types of cancer, which are completely mechanistically different in both their initiation, progression, location(s), and mechanism, that a one-for-all cure for cancer would be as unlikely as an ice cube forming in the middle of the sun. (like that one???)

Most of our drugs are discovered accidentally through high throughput screening (basically trying millions of chemicals on a glump of goo that is supposed to represent the disease state you're trying to treat). Rational drug design is still in the very young stages and depends very much on computer power and luck as well. Using viruses in experiments to deliver genetic information hasn't gone particularly well either - Jesse Gelsinger was killed by one of the first gene therapy trials using an adenoviral vector (that's a gutted version of the common cold). Since then there has been no particularly successful trials worldwide using viruses (although there's been a few with somewhat promising undisasterous results).

It is also very unlikely that HIV would make a good biological weapon, it works far too slowly to be useful in combat, although transmission of the vector could be fun. Then it couldn't be called hand-to-hand combat anymore.

So the next time somebody says "Cold fusion works, they're just holding back the formula because oil companies would go broke", or "AIDS was released accidentally from a lab", keep in mind that we really aren't that smart yet.

Answer 5

I think that it is unlikely that the virus was engineered. There are many cases where a virus jumps from one species to another and there is no doubt that HIV has been derived from SIV, a similar ape disease. Virusses cross between species all the time like with bird flu. Everybody has their own theory. Look at this link and pick your favourite.

Answer 6

Whether or by intent or accident, the Naval Research Center in Long Beach, CA in the early 70/s were where doing research in infection of macrophages by viruses.
It has been said that the politicos at the center of this were looking for a more moral community. How else would you "rid" your society of drugs and promiscuous sex? How better to do it than introduce it and let it take affect in those who engage in that activity.

Answer 7

First off, AIDS is a Syndrome, HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. No matter what the origin of this disease. Just protect yourself!

Answer 8

i highly doubt it is an experiment gone bad because one of the main ways to get it is from having sex but how would an experiment make it so you pass it through sex and also its hereditary but how can someone make it get passed down through generations

Answer 9

I dont know how or why it was created but I do believe that it was created by man. I dont think God would put such a horrible virus such as HIV/AIDS on Earth to infect innocent children who have to go through such pain and suffering because their idiotic parents didn't use a condom or get tested!!! Its that simple people!!!!! GET TESTED

Answer 10

I agree w/you. I think it was created and gotten out of hand. Rest assure that we will never know the true, only speculations. Some things are meant to not to be known and this is one of them. Does genocide tells you anything?

Answer 11

Yes in one way.A biologist in a rainforrest experimented with a baboon .They had sex and he caught aids.