Where did HIV originate? How did the disease jump from non-human
primates to humans? How is it spread through the human
population today? Where did HIV originate? The answer to the
question of where Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome originated has been elusive. Many different
explanations concerning its emergence and its cause have been
debated within the scientific community. Only recently has it
been accepted widely that HIV is a descendant of a Simian
Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), The acceptance that HIV came from
SIV is due to the fact that certain strains of SIV share very
similar genetic make-ups to HIV-1 and HIV-2 which are two types
of HIV. HIV-1, which is the more virulent strain of HIV, shows a
very close resemblance to a strain of SIV called SIVcpz and is
found in chimpanzees. HIV-2 shows a correspondence with an SIV
that is found in the sooty mangabey, an animal indigenous to
western Africa. With the very close relationships seen between
SIV strains and the two HIV s