The original of the AIDS virus has been traced to 1909.
It originated in King Leopold’s Belgian Congo and the first known person to likely be infected happened around 1920.[1] Now here’s the creepy thing… AIDS didn’t really hit the world in a global way until 1981. That’s when it began making massive waves.
Because of the sixty-plus years separating the genesis of AIDS until its widespread impact globally, this means the disease likely remained somewhat localized, possibly in some fairly remote area of Congo. It is speculated that sailors on shore leave to Congo brought it to Europe — likely a particularly promiscuous Scandinavian sailor, if I recall correctly. Another speculated “patient zero” was a rather naughty Canadian flight attendant who couldn’t keep it in his pants… anyway, these men visited Congo, returned home, slept around and, boom! Millions of casualties, worldwide. In the sailor’s case, his wife and youngest kid died shortly after him, also of AIDS.
Now imagine, if a disease as devastatingly deadly as AIDS can remain relatively hidden for over half a century, then what more horrific diseases are out there in the middle of nowhere, in some remote places rarely visited? And what other diseases might suddenly hit the scene in a massively unexpected way, seemingly out of nowhere, at any given time?
Footnotes
No comments:
Post a Comment