The origin of AIDS

Source: (http://www.globalchange.com/aidsafrica.htm)

HIV and AIDS are extremely prevalent in Africa today, although the first recognized case was diagnosed in the United States in the early 1980s. The disease originally arose among gay men, although now it is recognized as a more universal disease.  The young gay men were showing symptoms and illnesses that were not seen before of people their age and thus people became aware that a new disease was out there.  Like I mentioned above the disease was originally thought of as a homosexual problem and if one did not engage in homosexual activities they would be fine.  This is obviously a very naive concept but at the time and with the knowledge people had at that time it fit.  The idea of bisexuals, or people that could obtain the disease from a homosexual and then pass it to a heterosexual was not a concept the public could understand.  The next group that was targeted were individuals who used needles to inject drugs, as the disease could be passed through the needles themselves if they were not properly sterilized.
While AIDS was first diagnosed in the United States it had been growing undetected in Africa for many years.  The virus that causes HIV and AIDS was found in chimpanzees and traced back as far as the 1930s.  Evidence proves that the first epidemic of AIDS began in the Congo in the 1970s and it was spread heterosexually.  The disease then spread from urban area to urban area and by the time it reached Eastern Africa in the 1980s it was a worldwide epidemic.  African doctors were beginning to gain knowledge about the disease that was popping up in America and the United Kingdom and the links between the two were beginning to form.  The question now was how did a disease travel so far so fast? Many groups were targeted as those who could have spread the disease including migrants, sex workers and truck drivers, all due to their sexual practices and ability to move around.  Around the late 1980s the disease stopped growing among gay men in Africa but was already a huge heterosexual problem and one that remains an epidemic in Africa today.