Were AIDS and Ebola created in a laboratory?

HIV, also known as the human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus which leads to progressive failure of the immune system. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe the number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the infection of the virus, and can eventually lead to fatality. Most cases are contracted due to sexual transmittance of the virus; occurring due to contact with or the transfer of blood, semen and vaginal fluids. AIDS was first clinically observed in 1981 in the US, with initial cases being confirmed in drug users and gay men with no known cause of impaired immunity. As more cases emerged, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created a task force to monitor the outbreaks.

Ebola is a virus that incubates inside its human hosts in under two weeks, turning internal organs into pulp and causing severe blood clots, haemorrhaging and brain damage. The original outbreak of Ebola occurred in 1976, killing almost 300 people. Since then, there has been dozens of cases reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including a 2007 outbreak which took the lives of 187 people. A new strain of Ebola, discovered in Uganda in 2007, claimed the lives of a further 150 people. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea also suffered the effects of another outbreak in 2014, of which one case spread to the US and caused 1 loss of life, but the spread managed to be contained.

The existence of Ebola and AIDS gives rise to a range of conspiracy theories claiming these diseases are man-made conditions designed to eliminate the world’s so-called “useless-eaters”, of which include black people, homosexuals and drug users.

HIV Virus

Ebola Virus

---

Use as a bioweapon:

Most conspiracy theories claim HIV was developed for use as a bioweapon to control the populations of certain groups of people. A disproportionately high number of African Americans have contracted HIV, leading to the speculation that the disease was created as a way to reduce or eliminate the number of black people in the United States. The high incidence of HIV among gay men, who have the potential to be from any race, has been explained away as the result of testing by the US government on this potential target group in order to eliminate them.

Jakob Segal:

Jakob Segal was a professor of biology at an East German University who made claims that HIV was a man-made virus, caused by splicing together two different viruses. In 1985, the KGB created a campaign called operation INFEKTON, which aimed at increasing anti-American feeling around the globe. INFEKTON attempted to spread rumours that HIV had been created in the US army’s former biological weapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, using the articles reported by Segal as evidence to support their claims. His research claimed that the virus was first tested on gay prison inmates in the US. Segal claimed professor Robert Gallo crossed the visna sheep virus with the HTL virus in 1978, and evidence of this theory is backed up with 90% of HIV RNA being found in Visna and 10% in HTLV. However, genomic analysis has disproved this.

Jakob Segal

Poisoning of wells:

There have been several reports in Liberia of medical officials infecting wells with Ebola in order to kill the residents of the towns in question. One report claims that around 4am, 2 ‘gigantic’ individuals armed with guns and using medical syringes attempted to drop a liquid substance into a well that was being used by thousands of homes in the area. Lawmakers were informed and asked to investigate the contamination. It is reported the Ebola is common among these towns.

Professor Francis Boyle:

Conspiracy theories claiming Ebola was invented in a laboratory are further fuelled with claims from Prof. Francis Boyle, a noted scholar of biowarfare at the University of Illinois. He has previously said: “What we are dealing with here is a biological warfare work that was conducted at the bio-warfare laboratories set up by the USA on the west coast of Africa. And if you look at a map produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) you can see where these laboratories are located. And they are across the heart of the Ebola epidemic, at the west coast of Africa. So, I think these laboratories, one or more of them, are the origins of the Ebola epidemic”. He has also gone on to claim that he had proof the Pentagon had ordered the CDC to test biological weapons work in Sierra Leone as early as 1988, but none of this evidence has come to light as of yet. Dr Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for the Economic Policy in the US has also revealed, when questioned, that he has suspicions that Ebola has been manufactured, and accused the US government of being “the greatest master criminal of our time”.

You can read the full interview of Professor Boyle’s thoughts here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40012.htm

Prof. Francis Boyle

There is a cure:

Another conspiracy theory popular among African Americans in particular, focuses on the idea that the government have formulated a cure for AIDS and Ebola, but are withholding this information from the public. Approximately 59% of African Americans believe this theory. The ‘Big Pharma conspiracy theory’ is the term used to refer to the collective list of diseases that are believed to have a cure that is purposefully unavailable to the public, such as cancer and the anti-vaccine movement. The theory that AIDS can be cured is further supported by the fact that one individual, Timothy Ray Brown, also referred to as the ‘Berlin patient’, has been cured of AIDS and is the only person to have ever done so. Conspiracy theorists use this case to prove that a cure is in existence, but is withheld from the public in order to control population.

Timothy Ray Brown, the only individual to have been cured from AIDS

HIV/AIDS denialism:

In short, this conspiracy is the belief that HIV does not cause AIDS. Some theorists complete reject the idea of HIV existing, whilst other believe it does exist but is, instead, a harmless virus that does not cause AIDS. They believe AIDS is actually caused by a combination of sexual behaviour, recreational drugs, malnutrition, haemophilia or the effects od the drugs used to treat HIV infection.