HIV blood test

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From the African bush to American cities, HIV and AIDS have killed tens of millions of people and infected tens of millions more since the first cases were made public in June of 1981.

The following are lesser-known aspects of the epidemic's nearly 35-year history.

* A black Missouri teen named Robert Rayford is thought to have had the earliest case of HIV/AIDS in North America. He died in 1969 but his cause of death remained a mystery until 1987.

* Scientists identified a type of chimpanzee in West Africa as the source of HIV infection in humans. They believe the chimpanzee version of the immunodeficiency virus (called simian immunodeficiency virus or SIV) most likely was transmitted to humans and mutated into HIV when humans hunted these chimpanzees for meat and came into contact with their infected blood.

Information courtesy theaidsinstitute.org.

* Over decades, the virus slowly spread across Africa and later into other parts of the world. The earliest known case of infection with HIV-1 in a human was detected in a blood sample collected in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. How he became infected is unknown.

Information courtesy theaidsinstitute.org.

* Patient Zero was once thought to have been a Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas. Dugas was blamed for bringing the virus to North America in the 1980s and infecting as many as 250 men a year on both sides of the Atlantic. That theory has since been largely discredited and Dugas labeled a scapegoat.

Information via dailymail.co.uk.



* It is now believed the epidemic most likely began around 1970 in New York City and that the virus had probably come from Haiti or another Caribbean country. Patient Zero may never be identified.

Information via dailymail.co.uk.

* For many years, China called AIDS the "loving capitalism disease" and claimed it was a disease caused by contact with the West. In 2009, China reported that AIDS had become the country's leading cause of death among infectious diseases.

Information via latimes.com and theepochtimes.com.

* People with HIV have a harder time than healthy individuals recognizing fear in the faces of others. The trouble with emotional recognition may be caused by subtle cognitive deficits related to the disease.

Information via livescience.com.



* The CDC at one point had named AIDS the "the 4H disease" because it seemed to affect Haitians, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and heroin users. The general press used the term "GRID" which meant "gay-related immune deficiency." In 1982, the CDC started referring to the disease as AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).

Information via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

* Actor Rock Hudson became the first celebrity to go public with the illness on July 25, 1985, at a time when many believed AIDS was only a problem for gay men, drug users and patients who received tainted blood transfusions. He died on Oct. 2, 1985, at the age of 59 in Beverly Hills, California.

Information via nydailynews.com.

* There is compelling evidence that male circumcision reduces the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infections in men by approximately 60 percent. But male circumcision provides only partial protection and should be only one element of a comprehensive HIV prevention package, experts say.

Information via World Health Organization.

* Women, children, and infants were being raped in Africa based on the mistaken belief that sex with a virgin cured HIV.

Information via telegraph.co.uk.

* There are some people who show a resistance to HIV through a genetic mutation called Delta32 which keeps the virus from entering a cell. Very few people have this genetic variation, which some scientists think has been inherited from ancestors who survived the massive bubonic plague in Europe centuries ago. About 1 percent of Caucasians have it and it is even rarer in Native Americans, Asians and Africans. A 2005 report indicated that 1 percent of people descended from Northern Europe are virtually immune to AIDS.

Information via hivplusmag.com.

* Infectious HIV has been recovered from human corpses between 11 and 16 days after death in bodies that have been stored in mortuary temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius. HIV was not detected in bodies after 16 days, suggesting that buried corpses or bodies preserved over time pose less of a risk. Additionally, embalming fluids inactivate HIV. HIV transmission has also not been reported as a consequence of contact with spillages of blood, semen or other body fluids.

Information courtesy aidsmap.com.

* HIV may survive for up to six weeks in syringes after HIV-infected blood has been drawn up into the syringe and then flushed out.

Information courtesy aidsmap.com.

* HIV is sensitive to high temperatures but not to extreme cold. Experiments have shown that HIV is killed by heat, but temperatures over 60degC or 140degF are needed to achieve reliable killing of HIV.

Information courtesy aidsmap.com.



* In 2006, a Londoner named Sarah Porter was one of the first women prosecuted for the reckless transmission of HIV. She was tried and sent to prison for 32 months. She reportedly was driven to seek revenge on black men whom she claimed were responsible for her illness. She was convicted of grievous bodily harm through the reckless transmission of HIV and sentenced to prison for 32 months.

Information via dailymail.co.uk.

* In 2009, president Barack Obama lifted a 22-year ban on travel to the United States by people who had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, calling the ban "rooted in fear rather than fact."

Information via nytimes.com.

* An estimated 34 million people have died from AIDS since its discovery, including 1.2 million in 2014.

Information via aids.gov.