WI: No AIDS?

Tripledot · Jul 13, 2014

What if SIDS does not cross over to humans and become a global pandemic? How would this effect how homosexuals are viewed, and how would this impact Africa? Would there be as much emphasis on education on STDs if there was no AIDS, and how would that play out in society as a whole?

Sian · Jul 13, 2014

might just be me, but shouldn't this be in post-1900, with it first being recognized in 1981 and with caucious guesses on HIV (the ancestor virus of AIDS) being transferred from the first chimpanzee (or whatever the exact ape its from, still debated) in the early twentieth century

Andre27 · Jul 13, 2014

The youth could shack without having to worry about a killer STD.
Now all they have to worry about is pregnancy and relatively benign STD (benign as in those with a cure if discovered on time).

As for the rest, better ask some witchdoctor with his crystal ball.

asnys · Jul 13, 2014

It's really impossible to say for sure, the butterflies would be so huge. Definitely a more stable Africa, though.

Ultimate Paragon · Jul 13, 2014

I think the Sexual Revolution would last longer.

C. McKay · Jul 13, 2014

Culturally, this is an interesting question, Triplespot, so I am going to post, hoping to keep this thread alive.

Generally, how would the absence of AIDS affect the gay rights movement?

Specifically, many of those who died from AIDS died in their prime (or younger). What would pop culture (especially music) be like if Freddie Mercury were still alive? Or if designers Perry Ellis and Willi Smith were still alive? Would any of the actors, artists, and writers listed here be more well-known?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HIV-positive_people

Other areas to consider would be the impact on medicine and parts of the world that are most affected by AIDS.

Alternate History Geek · Jul 13, 2014

Without AIDS, gays would very likely be less stigmatised than OTL, and we could see both a Lawrence v. Texas equivalent and same-sex marriage a decade or two before their OTL dates.

Dathi THorfinnsson · Jul 13, 2014

See also

AHC\WI: AIDS\HIV confined to the Congo?
Alternate History Geek

What if the disease HIV-AIDS never appeared? (

1 2)
BigDave1967

WI: No AIDS Virus
LHB

WI: No AIDS
Makemakean

AHC: World without AIDS (or at least keep it local)
Alexpira

WI A world without HIV? (

1 2)
Francisco Cojuanco

WI No HIV?
anon_user

WI: A World without AIDS (

1 2 3)
Glen

The world without AIDS? (

1 2)
ArKhan

Dathi THorfinnsson · Jul 13, 2014

My contribution to one of those other threads.

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
Remember that hiv appeared in humans twice, so its jump to humans is clearly not a highly unlikely event that can easily be butterflied away.

Probably siv jumped to humans dozens or hundreds of times, but stayed confined to specific villages or areas, then died out when the village died.

What REALLY gave hiv its chance was the mass movement of thousands of men into cities, miningcamps, etc, vastly increasing prostitution and mobility. So instead of the virus being confined to one hunter and his wives, or maybe the village if he wasnt faihful, it now got to spread across a continent.

Alternate History Geek · Jul 13, 2014

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
My contribution to one of those other threads.

Yes. It only jumped to humans twice, as opposed to most every even remotely common human disease you care to name. The fact that it only jumped the species gap twice, as opposed to many times over, suggests that, yes, actually, it should be fairly easy to either butterfly entirely or at least stamp out early.

Damn you, Leopold II. If you hadn't clusterfucked up the Congo and left it at some degree of "hellhole" for the next, oh, two centuries or so, maybe one of those would actually have happened OTL!!!!!

Dathi THorfinnsson · Jul 13, 2014

Alternate History Geek said:
Yes. It only jumped to humans twice, as opposed to most every even remotely common human disease you care to name. The fact that it only jumped the species gap twice, as opposed to many times over, suggests that, yes, actually, it should be fairly easy to either butterfly entirely or at least stamp out early.

Damn you, Leopold II. If you hadn't clusterfucked up the Congo and left it at some degree of "hellhole" for the next, oh, two centuries or so, maybe one of those would actually have happened OTL!!!!!

No. It only jumped AND SPREAD twice. It surely jumped hundreds of times in history before that - it just killed off all the locals, and died out.

Note that the second jump was nowhere near the Congo, so Leopold f***ing that up or not wouldn't stop HIV-2.

red1 · Jul 13, 2014

Andre27 said:
The youth could shack without having to worry about a killer STD.
Now all they have to worry about is pregnancy and relatively benign STD (benign as in those with a cure if discovered on time).

As for the rest, better ask some witchdoctor with his crystal ball.

Umm-Herpes, Genital warts, HPV, Crabs, etc.

Alternate History Geek · Jul 13, 2014

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
Note that the second jump was nowhere near the Congo, so Leopold f***ing that up or not wouldn't stop HIV-2.

But it would stop HIV-1, and HIV-1 is the hyperaggressive spreader that is responsible for virtually all the HIV-related mayhem outside of West Africa.

Alternate History Geek · Jul 13, 2014

red1 said:
Umm-Herpes, Genital warts, HPV, Crabs, etc.

Genital warts is HPV. More precisely, one of the manifestations of HPV.

And herpes and crabs practically never kill people and are easily treatable. HPV kills people on occasion, but only indirectly, by causing cancer; in the vast majority of people, the virus load is cleared by the immune system within 6 to 18 months; and HPV has a vaccine.

So, yes, I would call all of these quite benign in comparison with HIV.