How could we make it so that AIDS\HIV, though it still jumps to humans, never makes it out of the Congo? Could having SIV mutate to a HIV much less virulent in humans that OTL's version do the trick? And what would be the effects of this?
AHC\WI: AIDS\HIV confined to the Congo?
- Thread starter Alternate History Geek
- Start date
Difficult. A less virulent HIV would actually spread further before being found.
A far more agressive HIV (say infection to AIDS in a year, and death after some months more) would on the other hand be found far earlier. Not that it wouldn' t spread outside Congo, but it would be contained before so many were infected.
On the third hand an agressive HIV/AIDS would burn itself out by killing the hosts before being able to spread the virus. IOTL patient X may infect Y, that infect Z etc with several years separation. ITTL Y would die within a year after X:s death, lowering the chance for Y to infect Z.
The effects would be huge in some segments of society. The gay community would be totally different without all deaths in the 80s and early 90s - but also without all new regulations regarding safe sex and monogamy.
Isaac Asimov would not get AIDS and propably live some more years (he was only 72 years old).
I thought of something interesting: No AIDS in the US, and Saturday Night Fever doesn't get made, so no Disco backlash.
How long does Disco stay fairly popular?
BigDave1967
Banned
Saturday Night Fever would still be made and Disco would hang around until 1982 or 1983
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Hmmm....
Technically, I suppose that this is pretty much impossible as HIV-2 wasn't IN the Congo.
OTOH, given that HIV-2 has barely spread out of West Africa, maybe what we need to posit is that it never gets started, and that what happens in the Congo is a lot more like OTL's HIV-2 than the HIV-1 that is there.
Technically, I suppose that this is pretty much impossible as HIV-2 wasn't IN the Congo.
OTOH, given that HIV-2 has barely spread out of West Africa, maybe what we need to posit is that it never gets started, and that what happens in the Congo is a lot more like OTL's HIV-2 than the HIV-1 that is there.
Disco kinda really didn't die by the 80s. The songs just got relabeled. Certainly the subculture died even if the music didn't, though. And Disco went on in the world outside the US for a while.
Not sure how this relates to AIDS in the Congo, though.