Origins of AIDS/HIV are not known even though there has been considerable amount of discussion and research on the subject of origin. It is believed that it might have its origin in Haiti's rural area from where it spread to urban centers and then came to the US through gay men. But this was just a speculation, which is no longer valid since research in rural Haiti indicates that this virus was rare in that area and was actually spreading from urban to rural instead of being the other way around as has been theorized. It was also found that HIV might have been transported to Haiti from the US or Zaire from where bisexual or gay males brought the disease to Haiti.
            
             The most commonly accepted theory of origin of AIDS finds its roots in Africa. In the 1980s, green monkeys in African were found to be the carriers of HIV and it was felt that they had been infected human beings through bites and scratches. But even this theory is no longer accepted since the virus found in green monkeys known as SIV doesn't resemble HIV or remotely resembles the same. Apart from some scientifically sounds theories of origin of AIDS, there have been some ridiculous ones as well. For instance some argue that HIV was introduced in Africa during a vaccination campaign that targeted polio the 1950s. But blood samples that have been tested for this discredited the theory.
            
             In one theory, it was assumed that HIV was not the cause of AIDS instead it was caused by overload of microorganisms. This was called the ' 'overload theory'' that argued that so many gay men were becoming ill because of overload of organisms in the body that caused the body to breakdown. It was finally in 1984 that HIV was seen as the cause of AIDS.
            
             The Impact of the Epidemic
            
             The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and throughout the rest of the world has been massive. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stat...