1. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus and causes AIDS which attacks the immune system. HIV has high genetic variability which leads to many strains. It is believed to have originated from SIV which transferred to humans in Africa approximately 100 years ago. 2. HIV/AIDS affects about 0.6% of the world's population and has killed over 25 million people. While nobody is immune, some people with certain genetic mutations are highly resistant. 3. According to the WHO, around 34 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2001. HIV/AIDS caused 3.1% of all deaths in 2008 and was declared a global catastrophe by the UN. It has made sex extremely dangerous and casts

1. Jordan Schneider
Social Issues 2˚
Research Benchmark 1
I. IDENTIFICATION:
1. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus and AIDS stands for Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome. AIDS was first clinically observed between late 1980 and early
1981 in injection drug users and gay men. In 1983 two separate research groups, one lead by
Robert Gallo and the other by Luc Montagnier, declared that AIDS was caused by some sort
of retrovirus. Montagnier’s group isolated a virus in an AIDS patient naming it
lymphadenopathy-Associated virus (LAV), Gallo’s group named the strand they isolated
Human T-lymphotropic Virus III (HTLV-III). In 2008 Montagnier received half of the Nobel
prize in Physiology or Medicine for “e discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus”.5
2. HIV is a lentivirus (a family of virus’ that causes AIDS) which attacks the immune
sysytem4. AIDS is a more advanced form of HIV and occurs when the immune system is
crippled so severely by HIV that it allows for other life-threatening conditions to enter and
occupy the body.4
3. HIV has a high genetic variability brought on by its fast replication (about 1010 virons per
day). is leads to many strains of HIV virus in a single person.2
4. It is widely accepted that HIV is a mutated form of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV)
which transferred to humans in Africa approximately 100 years ago.1
5. HIV can only effect and be carried by humans as it is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus,
however, there are other lentivirus’ such as Simian Immunodeficiency Virus which can also
lead to AIDS.2
II. DEMOGRAPHICS:
1. HIV and AIDS are ubiquitous, however, AIDS was first clinically observed in San Francisco
and New York in the early 1980s.1
2. HIV, which is considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), affects
0.6% of the world’s population and has killed in excess of 25 million people.6
3. Nobody is immune to HIV, however, people who share a certain pair of mutated genes are
highly resistant to the AIDS virus. ese genetic mutations have been traced back the medieval
times and is attributed to a mutation protecting people from Small Pox and the Bubonic
Plague; these mutations are more common among people Northern European and Central
Asian descent.3

2. III. IMPACT:
1. According to the WHO were approximately 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS.6 HIV/
AIDS caused 3.1% of all deaths in 20086 and is considered a pandemic by the World Health
Organization. 2001 the United Nations declared in a general assembly that HIV/AIDs is a
global catastrophe which requires global commitment to fight.
2. HIV/AIDS has made indiscriminate sex extremely dangerous, it has become a shadow over
modern society as it has no cure and can shorten one's lifespan to a shocking degree.1
1. Pisani, E. (2011, September 3). HIV. New Scientist, 211(2828), i-8.
2. Rambaut, A., Posada, D., Crandall, K.A., & Holmes, E.C. (2004, January). e Causes and
Consequences of HIV Evolution. Nature, 5, 52-61
3. Dotinga, R. (2005, July 01). Genetic HIV Resistance Deciphered. Retrieved from
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/01/66198?currentPage=all
4. Stein, J. M. (1975). e random house college dictionary. (Revised ed., Vol. 1). New York, NY: Random
House Reference
5. e Nobel Foundation. (2012, February 28). e Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008. Retrieved
from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/index.html
6. World Health Organization. (2011, June). World Health Organization Fact Sheets. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/index.html