I gave up on
Edward Hooper's
tome The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS after reading 380 out of its 1000+ pages. It's a well-written and exhaustively
researched
book, but it goes into excessive detail.
The fundamental
hypothesis is fascinating. Hooper argues that early applications of the
polio vaccine in
Africa may have introduced
AIDS into the
human population. Certain
monkeys and
chimpanzees have
simian immunodeficiency viruses (
SIV's), which are genetically similar to
HIV. Some oral polio vaccines were generated by passaging the
polio virus through
primate kidneys. Hooper investigates whether a polio vaccine, contaminated with SIV's, may have transferred the virus to
humanity.
The
theory sounds plausible, though the
evidence supporting it is circumstantial. For example, the
geographic region and time period where AIDS first appeared coincides with the large-scale
testing of one variety of the polio vaccine.
However, the
scientific and
medical establishment attacks the theory vehemently. As an outsider, it's difficult to tell whether the criticisms are justified.