Exploring the Origins of the HIV Epidemic

Paul Botes/AP Photo

Ever wonder where HIV originated or how it became the deadly and devastating killer it is today?  These questions and many more are the subjects of a new book by Craig Timberg, former Johannesburg bureau chief for the Washington Post, and co-author Daniel Halperin.  Entitled Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It, the book follows HIV from its inception as the unidentified simian virus SIV to the complex killer it is today.  

Timberg explains, “... that’s part of the reason it’s still with us today.  It has spread very slowly.  It makes people ill very slowly ... And that’s one of the reasons why it’s been so difficult for the world to understand it. … It’s been hard to make sense of this epidemic because of the way it moves.  It’s not obvious.”

As colonialism spread in Africa, humans began to encroach on chimpanzee populations, resulting in the transmission of SIV and its mutation into HIV.  This first happened in Cameroon, but the disease soon migrated through other parts of central Africa, eventually reaching the Belgian Congo, which was undergoing dramatic urbanization.  While the virus had not yet been identified as HIV, it was unknowingly transmitted from the colonials to aid workers from Haiti and soon made its way into the United States and Europe.  The more easily people began to move around the globe, the further HIV was able to extend its reach.  

One particularly interesting issue that Timberg explores is the Western approach to combating AIDS in Africa.  He uses Uganda and Zimbabwe as examples of countries which early on developed their own programs for stemming the spread of the deadly disease.  Although Zimbabwe was on the verge of political collapse and ruled by a tyrant, its relatively simple methods to heading off the transmission of HIV, such as male circumcision, were successful, especially when compared to the Western-lead prevention programs in South Africa.  Timberg says this was because of the tendency of Western initiatives to design heavy-handed, confusing and “stunningly off point” messages related to sex.  For example, Uganda managed to save hundreds of thousands of lives over a five-year period with little outside influence; however, as soon as the foreign AIDS money began to roll in, the HIV rate started going back up.  

HIV doesn’t seem to be such an African problem after all.

To read the entire article on Tinderbox: