Dear Ms. Thompson,
GREETINGS TO you in Jamaica. Here in Florida a Frontline documentary on this very subject was broadcast on TV; I found it very interesting.
Among my acquaintances there is a general consensus that at the root of all this is a nefarious scheme to eliminate the black man, that this virus was engineered by the caucasians and somehow introduced by vaccine or other means to accomplish their goal. I am aware of the experiments carried out at Tuskegee years ago, therefore anything, however repulsive, is possible. I wonder if we will ever find out the genesis of this disease which has caused misery to millions.
Chuck Sussman, Boca Raton, Florida
'Naive' analysis?
Dear Ms. Thompson,
I HAVE a few questions concerning your article on the origin of HIV. I have heard, read about, and thought about all the popular theories concerning the origin of HIV, and, frankly, the chimp/monkey theory is just not convincing.
Now, I am not a life scientist (I am a computer scientist), but I think I can tell if an argument is reasonable, based on the evidence presented. You stated that the research shows great similarities between SIV and HIV, and that the suggestion is that this virus crossed species. The question is: how did it happen?
Apparently, the SIV is similar to HIV in the mode of transmission, i.e., through bodily fluids. So, how did SIV get from the faeces or urine of chimps to humans in southern Cameroon? Was there a significant number of people living in such close contact with chimps that they did somehow ingest food or drink that had been contaminated with the body fluids of SIV-positive chimps? Just think of the numbers. How many people could actually be infected in this way?
In my mind, there would have to be a fairly large centre of population in southern Cameroon, with some highly- contaminated drinking water source, that, over a number of years, drank themselves into SIV/HIV infection, then set about methodically to spread it across the world by having sex with as many people (people bound for other countries) as they could.
What just stumps me totally is how did HIV spread so rapidly to the rest of the world? Are we so loose in our sexual habits that this would travel from southern Cameroon to, say, the United States or Brazil in a matter of a few years? Take the case of the SARS, endemic (if you want to call it that) to one area of the world, one with a much larger population than Cameroon, yet, it has not spread to the rest of the world. Has it? Though you may argue that the symptoms of SARS are much more obvious over the short term, and that we had much more information about SARS than we did about HIV. The point however is that a virus that is only transmittable through body fluids needs some form of mass transport if it is going to reach the rest of the world, particularly if it originates in one small corner of the globe. A vaccine seems to be the perfect vehicle.
I do not expect the established medical journals or any research group based in any first world nation to 'discover' or publish anything too far removed from what you stated that this 'new' research said. It simply appears to break down under my, perhaps naive, analysis. Perhaps you can tell me if what I am saying is sound or not.
Princeton Ebanks
Encouragement
Dear Ms. Thompson,
PLEASE CONTINUE this story on the origin of HIV. It is very interesting and enlightening.
Anthony C. Blair
* Send questions and comments to our health specialists at Your Health, c/o The Gleaner, 7 North Street, Kingston; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com. Unless otherwise indicated, letters and the specialists' responses are usually published.
