Really A Question For Epidemiologists, I Suppose...

[sandyRoe]

If the AIDS-HIV virus had developed in the 19th Century what would its effects have been on human populations?

[TWR]

I would have thought It was around in the 19th Century Sandy, but could not Identify it.

[sandyRoe]

Maybe it was, in small isolated pockets. It was probably the international travel of our day made it a worldwide problem.

[TWR]

It came in conversation with my Daughter, she is a Matron in our local A&E, It was caught by man who got Cheesy with Monkeys, that's the so-called theory.

[jim360]

As a non-epidemiologist, it's hard to say, but it could well have been pretty devastating. A reasonable comparable disease might be syphilis, since that's spread in broadly the same way, and it this was rather common in the 19th Century (at least in Europe), then so too might HIV have been. In which case "pretty devastating" would be a fairly accurate description; more so, as HIV is a viral disease whereas syphilis is bacterial, so that anything based on antibiotics would be useless at treating it.

At a rough guess, it would likely be equivalent in scope to Black Death, but it's hard to say as there are so many suppositions, such as: would the disease again develop firstly in Africa?

[wolf63]

TWR - is that the exact medical phrase your daughter used "got Cheesy with Monkeys".

Sorry Sandy - I know that is a 'serious' section.

[TWR]

The monkey winked at the man, the man stroked the Monkeys face, the monkey smiled at man, man stroked monkeys breast, monkey grabbed man's Nut's, man kissed monkey's lips then give it a good Rogering, I dare not use the right term Wolf.

[wolf63]

TWR - it would read like this ****** **** ********* funicular

[Baldric]

Ahh!, that's so sweet!

[TWR]

Sandy going back to your Q, Man from tribes in Africa had Intercourse with Apes, man did not know & it was then passed on.

[TWR]

You are Terrible Wolf, but I like it. x

[factor-fiction]

This article suggests it may have been around in or before the 1950s

[factor-fiction]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_HIV/AIDS

[Baldric]

Monkeying about never does any good!

[EDDIE51]

One theory is that a single extremely promiscuous homosexual male airline steward started the AIDS epidemic by having anal sex with monkeys while on stop over in Zaire in the early 1960s. He then had sex with many other men and it snowballed. He allegedly admitted to having anal sex with up to 10 different men a day for years.

[sandyRoe]

It seems to me that there's one problem with the monkey theory. Most would be too small. While chimps or gorillas are so strong they could tear someone limb from limb.

[EDDIE51]

The man was known as 'patient one' his story is here.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,145257,00.html
The explosion of cases in he 1980s was due to the 'Gay revolution' and the introduction of 'Steam Rooms ' and massage parlours which were just a cover for meeting places where promiscuous gays could have anonymous sex.

[EDDIE51]

^^ The story is that 'Patient One' either had sex with monkeys himself or had sex with African men who had eaten monkey meat that was not fully cooked so as to kill the AIDS virus. AIDS has been around in monkeys for 100s of years but it has little if any effect on them, it was when it crossed the species boundary that problems started. It was then massively spread due to the 'Gay Revolution' when gay sex became acceptable. This could not have happened in the 19th century.

[RATTER15]

And typically, the ape never phoned, wrote or even texted!!! Devastating, they aren't very considerate!!!!

[ummmm]

I watched a programme about the man Eddie mentions. Apparently flying from city to city having unprotected sex with as many men as possible. In the programme they solely blamed him for the decease reaching Europe.

[sandyRoe]

Even if he ^ had never existed it would have arrived in Europe eventually.