Viruses closely related to HIV are found in monkeys and other non-human primates in Africa, and many scientists believe that the first humans were infected through contact with monkeys in the middle years of the 20th century. We don't know of anyone who has attempted to have sex with a wild monkey. It's hard to imagine that such an attempt would make it past first base, but perhaps that's one way to get scratched or bitten. Sometimes monkeys are eaten as food, and it's perhaps easier to imagine contact with infected blood through a knife cut during preparation. So this is one possible explanation for the origin of HIV/AIDS. As far as the lab invention theory, we agree with you: This doesn't make much sense. Most of the "straight" scientists we know have homosexual colleagues and friends, and it's hard to imagine them devising a virus for the express purpose of killing these people. Even if someone wanted to do that, we don't think she would be able to come up with a virus that is so amazingly evolved to escape the immune system. We continue to learn more about the immune system than we had ever imagined just from studying the ways that the virus outsmarts it. After many years in medical research, we are not acquainted with scientists (gay, straight, or otherwise) of sufficient talent to devise such an intricate and destructive virus from scratch. The principles of natural selection might be very helpful to your son in understanding how this virus came about. We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of your son's health teacher, but he or she may not be best qualified person to teach evolution. |
