Thursday, October 7, 2010

Stopping the Origins Of AIDS

The way HIV originated has been questioned since it started to spread to other countries. The common misconception is that it was cause by fornication with a monkey but it is caused from something called Bush Meat. This is setting traps and catching animals that are usually primates. Nathan Wolfe discusses the dangers and effects of Bush Meat and how it spreads zoonatic viruses, viruses that can be transferred from animals to humans,  in a TED Talk.

In his speech, he explained why it is important to know what Bush Meat is and how diseases are able to transfer that way. He showed maps of other diseases entering the human population like SARS, HIV, and others. He revealed his plan of tracking and preventing these diseases from the start and monitering the average amount of bushmeat that is diseased. He has done this by having locals put a drop of blood on filter paper to test later when he makes visits to those communities. He has a very global outlook on preventing and stopping HIV and other zoonatic diseases.

I believe That HIV can be slowed down but I don't think it can be stopped at this point. I do think it is possible other diseases from spreading by raising awareness to locals in the jungles where they originate. These diseases should be taken very seriously and maximum efforts should be applied to stop them in their tracks.

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