Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories

Various fringe theories have arisen to speculate about purported alternative origins for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with claims ranging from it being due to accidental exposure to supposedly purposeful acts. Several inquiries and investigations have been carried out as a result and each of these theories consequently determined to be based on unfounded and/or false information. HIV has been shown to have evolved from or is closely related to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in West Central Africa sometime in the early 20th century. HIV was not discovered until the 1980s by French scientist Luc Montagnier. Before the 1980s, HIV was an unknown deadly disease.