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Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue
1 (March 1999)
Issue
2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue
7 (May 2000)
Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)
Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)
Categories
Sport: 1
2 3
Lifestyles: 1 2
3
Commentary: 1 2
3
Review: 1 2
3
Writing: 1 2
3
Event: 1 2
3
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Catherine Howard
Regina Mundi College, Cork
You may find that the most shocking fact concerning AIDS is not the millions
infected and dying, it is not the sufferers who are discriminated against
in areas such as employment, nor is it the horrible, inhumane way in which
the disease finally takes their life. Unbelievibly, the most shocking
fact concerning AIDS is how, nearly two decades ago, an unknown, unrecognised
and virtually unstoppable disease crept from the shores of Lake Victoria
only to explode in the population of North America.
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) made its breakout from the
African rain forest around 1979, after which it began relentlessly infecting
the human race. However, the cause of the disease, HIV (Human Immunodeficency
Virus) had long since been replicating inside the cells of a large number
of people living on the shores of Lake Victoria. Somehow (the route is
subject to speculation but remains unknown) HIV hitched a ride to the
US, possibly aboard an aircraft, where it began attacking the male gay
population of cities along the west coast. Otherwise healthy homosexual
men were mysteriously being struck down by normally harmless parasitic
infections. The common factor was found to be a suppressed immune system,
thus accounting for the inability to fight off minor infections. Today,
these infections are called "Opportunistic Illnesses", which
are generally the actual cause of death in an AIDS patient and are also
used as clinical endpoints, used to determine the progression from the
point of HIV infection to the final stages of AIDS.
It was on June 5th 1981, that Dr. Micheal Gottlieb of the University
of California at the Los Angeles Medical Center, had his paper on the
strange disease published in the Centers For Disease Control's "Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report". The paper described the illness that
had been dubbed GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficency) and thus did not recognise
(for it was then unknown) the fact that the disease did not have a sexuality
preference and that many heterosexuals were infected also. In fact, it
was not until several months later that the name was changed to AIDS.
While American doctors despaired at the state of affairs in the US, a
devastating number of people had already died from AIDS in the towns and
villages surrounding Lake Victoria, Africa. The northwestern shore of
the lake is renowned for being one of the initial epicenters of AIDS after
its emergence from the forest and the beginning of its infection of the
human race. On the western shore lies a village called Kasenero, which
is one of the first places on earth where AIDS appeared. In 1982, 17 Kasenero
inhabitants developed AIDS. The village has since been practically eradicated
by the disease.
But lethal microbes have a tendency, not to originate from busy city
streets in the Western World, but from previously undisturbed ecologies.
Therefore, out of the two simultaneous outbreaks, it was more plausible
that HIV, found to be the causative agent of AIDS in 1985, had been flushed
out of the rainforest due to a change in habitat, perhaps the felling
of trees. Possibly, HIV/AIDS was carried aboard a trans-Atlantic flight
after entering the worldwide web of air routes somewhere in Africa. But
how did it make its way through rural Africa to a town or city large enough
to support an airport?
Kinshasa Highway is a transcontinental road which cuts Africa in two.
Originating in Mobasa, Kenya in the east, it passes through Kinshasa,
the capital of Zaire and ends at Pointe-Noire on the west coast. It also
passes by Entebbe on the shores of Lake Victoria. This road, many believe,
is responsible for the emergence and spread of AIDS. It was once a wandering
dirt track, practically impossible to travel along. In the 1970s it was
paved and soon after boasted a heavy traffic flow. This encouraged the
movement of natives out of their villages and into the big cities. The
problem was that many of them were also carrying AIDS.
To cater for the travellers, particularly truck drivers, along the highway,
small restaurants sprang up along its length. Some of these establishments
also provided a bed for the night and others provided extras that discreetly
went unadvertised. Doctors believe that 90% of all prostitutes working
along the main African roads are infected with the AIDS virus.
Perhaps it is a sign of how advances in our evolution as a species are
working against us. In order to create an adequate road system and efficient
transport in an underdeveloped country, we unknowingly opened Pandora's
Box and unleashed the greatest scourge the world has ever known.
Kinshasa Highway is the road that boasts the world's highest death toll,
yet none of its victims have died on the road. They have perished at the
hands of a lethal microscopic virus. So far, conservative estimates hold
AIDS responsible for the loss of ten million lives and the fatalities
of the AIDS epidemic looks set to overshadow those of World War 2.
Positioned sporadically along the highway are signs which read, "Reduce
Road Carnage - Drive Safely". Few understand the irony.
Catherine Howard is a 16 year old Transition Year student
in Regina Mundi College, Cork. This article was shortlisted for the Young
Science Writers Competition 1997.
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