Pathogens That Cause AIDS

The only pathogen that causes AIDS is HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. Although there have been various alternate theories on the cause of AIDS, no other pathogen has ever been demonstrated to cause AIDS.

History

• Two years into the AIDS pandemic, scientists still hadn't identified a cause. According to avert.org, it was only in 1983 that a French team of researchers first isolated a virus that might be the cause; they called this virus LAV. In 1984, an American team of researchers announced it also isolated a virus as the cause, naming its finding HTLV-III.

Identification

• According to avert.org, by early 1985, researchers had determined that LAV and HTLV-III were the same virus. By mid-1986, the virus had been renamed HIV.

Effects

• HIV targets the cells of your immune system (lymphocytes), specifically CD4+ cells. The severe compromising of your immune system leads to ADIs (AIDS-defining illnesses); it is incredibly rare for these conditions to affect people who are not HIV-positive.

Proofs

• Doctors established as early as 1990 that all individuals with antibodies to HIV were HIV-positive (J.B. Jackson, et al.), and that there is an almost 100 percent concordance between AIDS and HIV infection. Compromising of CD4+ cells in people who have not contracted HIV is very rare (D.K. Smith, et al.), and HIV-targeting treatments for AIDS reduce the incidence of ADIs (A. Mocroft, et al.).

Misconceptions

• Although people have proposed many other roots of HIV, nothing but HIV infection has ever been shown to lead to AIDS.