The HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is found to have similar properties and also similar genetic structure as that of SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus), which is found in monkeys. Even the mode of transfer from one infected host to another is also same. Studies do not reveal any thing clearly to explain how exactly HIV was born from SIV or how the SIV virus entered the human body.

       The earliest discovery of AIDS virus was made in 1980 from the blood samples of a group of young gay men and drug addicts from USA who were becoming victims of rare types of cancer, pneumonia, cancer, and other forms of illness associated with weakened immune systems. HIV was also detected in tissue samples collected from an American teenager who died in 1969 and from the tissue samples of a Norwegian sailor who died around 1976. In January 2000, the results of a new study based on a computerized model of HIV's evolution, carried out by Dr Bette Korber of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, indicated that the earliest case of HIV-1 infection had actually occurred in early 1930s in Western Africa.

       Most of the times there was no trace of any specific illness but these young gay men were found to die within a few months of reporting their illness. Serious research began to ascertain the causative organisms for this deadly disease which was known to destroy the healthy T (CD4) cells responsible for fighting infections and protecting the body from all forms of infectious attacks. This new disease was named as AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in 1981 and the causative organism was named as HTLV-III/LAV (human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type III / lymphadenopathy - associated virus), which was later changed to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

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