Quote Originally Posted by Rowansraven
The key sentence in the Wikipedia blurb on AIDS is "HIV originated in non-human primates as far as is known " that in itself is far from definite and not exactly confidence inspiring. Don't believe everything you read just because the people who came to that conclusion have a few extra letters to put with their names.
I would beleive them over stoners on a pot forum :stoned:

HIV is most likely a jump from SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) and at a best guess from the Bushmeat trade. Monkey were slaughtered and blood-blood transfer would have happened on several occassions.

Continued exposure over time would give enough opportunity for the SIV to transfer in significant numbers and select out HIV. e.g. SIVsm and Green Monkeys.

An article published in The Lancet in 2004, also shows how retroviral transfer from primates to hunters is still occurring even today. In a sample of 1099 individuals in Cameroon , they discovered to ten (1%) were infected with SFV (Simian Foamy Virus), an illness which, like SIV, was previously thought only to infect primates. All these infections were believed to have been acquired through the butchering and consumption of monkey and ape meat. Discoveries such as this have led to calls for an outright ban on bushmeat hunting to prevent simian viruses being passed to humans.

Source: Wolfe, ND; Switzer, WM; Carr, JK; et al. (20 March 2004) "Naturally acquired simian retrovirus infections in Central African Hunters." The Lancet, Vol. 363, p. 932

Still a theory though - but a very solid one with a shitload of evidence.