Over the past thirty-five years, AIDS has become a well-known disease, affecting the lives of millions of Americans. Today the disease is still being researched, there are only a few ways that a person can contract it, and everyone is responsible for stopping the spread of AIDS.
             AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease that makes it hard for the body to fight off infectious diseases. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and causes AIDS by infecting and damaging the white blood cells known as CD4 helper lymphocytes which prevent infection. AIDS was first called gay-related immunodeficiency syndrome (GRIDS). GRIDS was rapidly adopted by researchers. When they discovered it in women and straight men, it became acquired immune deficiency syndrome. (Hopper)
             Most people believe that HIV/AIDS came from a natural evolutionary event. This is called the "cut hunter theory". According to the theory, an African native contracted a similar virus through a wound while preparing a chimpanzee for food. (Hopper)
             A study was done in 2001 by the Royal Society of London (RSL) to try to determine where it came from. Polio viruses, which were grown in monkeys' kidney cells, are historically proven to contain cancer viruses. The RSL researched the polio vaccine, the cancer viruses, and HIV/AIDS to try and make a connection amongst them. By the end of the study they concluded that because chimpanzees were not proven to have been used during the manufacture of the polio vaccine that the HIV/AIDS virus could not have originated during that time. (Hopper)
             HIV/AIDS started around 1970. Scientists still believed that it still involved man made vaccines and chimpanzees. The Hepatitis B vaccine was also manufactured around this time. It included chimpanzees in the manufacture. This vaccine was given to people in Africa and to a group of homosexual men in New York City. Dr. Leonard Horowitz was...