WI: AIDs Discovered In 1900 or Before

AIDs theoretically developed in West Africa in the late 19th or early 20th century. With a logistical cap of the early 20th century, what if AIDs was discovered at some point between said time and the 19th century? What effect would such a discovery have on the cultural context (not just sexuality, but religion and societal issue beyond that)? Similarly, what effect would such a discovery have on the spread of the disease and development of ways of treating and perhaps eventually curing it?
 
AIDs theoretically developed in West Africa in the late 19th or early 20th century. With a logistical cap of the early 20th century, what if AIDs was discovered at some point between said time and the 19th century? What effect would such a discovery have on the cultural context (not just sexuality, but religion and societal issue beyond that)? Similarly, what effect would such a discovery have on the spread of the disease and development of ways of treating and perhaps eventually curing it?

What do you mean by 'discover'?

The 'problem' with AIDS is that it really can't spread without fairly promiscuous sex. In the late 1800s it would be like syphilis - both uncurable, both completely fatal - but only in the rather long term.

Did syphilis have a huge impact on sexuality, religion and societal structure? no. Some, but not a huge amount. So I don't really imagine AIDS would do MUCH more.


Also, don't forget that in the 1800s the number of diseases that doctors could CURE could be counted on the fingers of one hand, so there wouldn't be any massive expectation that they'd come up with a cure for this.
 
Since death comes from fever and conventional infection, it would not be diagnosed. After all, pneumonia was a big killer before antibiotics.

Actually, there were cases where AIDS was confirmed in tissue samples from the sixties. AIDS is more readily transmitted by men than women. Gay men stayed "in the closet" in earlier decades and most likely did not have multiple partners. The chain of transmission would have been broken.

But what if it had been identified as a virus a century ago? If it could be identified, there would likely have been means to test for it. I would see people being quarantined and institutionalized long before any effective treatment would be found. You would see a heightened awareness over bloodborne diseases. Sexual transmission might even be considered secondary.
 
But what if it had been identified as a virus a century ago? If it could be identified, there would likely have been means to test for it. I would see people being quarantined and institutionalized long before any effective treatment would be found. You would see a heightened awareness over bloodborne diseases. Sexual transmission might even be considered secondary.
Yes, but how do you identify a virus in the blood before it shows any symptoms? In modern times, we can check antibodies, and stuff, but a lot of the tech needed is relatively recent.
 
Yes, but how do you identify a virus in the blood before it shows any symptoms? In modern times, we can check antibodies, and stuff, but a lot of the tech needed is relatively recent.

That is why AIDS would have been nearly impossible to detect in that era. In OTL, it took two years to do so with 1980 technology. It might have surfaced as an issue in blood transfusions, triggering a search for antibodies. But as stated, the technology was not there.

So, we are back to the conclusion that AIDS would have been impossible to identify a century ago.
 
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