Where did STDs come from.

[Broletariat]

I mean, you can't get STDs from having sex with someone who doesn't have STDs (...right >_>) so how'd the first STD's get started.

[tir1944]

They started with monkeys/apes i think.
As to how they spread to humans...well,i'd say that some caveman ancestor of ours felt lonely and depressed and...well you can figure out the rest.:laugh:

[Smyg]

Evolution.

[Zanthorus]

I would assume that most 'Sexually Transmitted' diseases are not actually specifically tailored diseases which can only be transmitted through intercourse, but rather diseases which tend to transmit easily through bodily fluids. For example, users of drugs which are administered via needle's are at risk of infection if they share their equipment with other users, and it's generally not a good idea to be near the blood of someone with HIV/AID's if you have an open wound. Most of these diseases were probably transmitted to humans by hunters or other people with occupations which exposed them to threat of injury while in an environment with diseased animals or just a generally unhygienic environement (War would be a good culprit here).

[Smyg]

Would be very frightening if they actually were tailored for that purpose. :D

[ВАЛТЕР]

The CIA did it....

No but seriously, they probably just developed along with humans and considering the filthy way in which we lived for centuries somebody was bound to get diseased somehow.

[RedGrunt]

Just evolution. Even plants have diseases transmitted through "sex"(pollen -> bees, birds, etc)

[Nox]

I think the first STDs either came from animals or were some sort of mutation of an existing disease.

Not sure though.

How long have STD's been around? I thought they were a fairly recent phenomenon.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Syphillus or however it's spelled came from people fucking sheep i'm pretty sure

[jake williams]

There's a really deeply rooted part of me that wants to say "your mom".

Seriously though, you could ask that about any infection. Bacteria and viruses have coevolved with other organisms for hundreds and hundreds of millions of years before humans ever evolved. Certainly some evolved to specialize transmission by sex, through the same processes organisms evolve to specialize in doing anything else.

Generally speaking, infections which now can only be transmitted through sex arose first as infections that were transmitted through other means, and then over the course of being transmitted over and over again through sex evolved to specialize in doing that.

[MarxSchmarx]

To answer the OP's question, most likely it jumped (as in the case of HIV/AIDS) from a non-human (often mammal) host to a human host at some point in it's history. Usually this means that a mutation occurred in the germ's genes that allowed it to replicate in humans, either by evading the human immune system or by exploiting a facet of human cells absent on its native host cell. This is how 99% of communicable diseases start. A tiny, tiny handful start when hitherto benign symbionts of humans turn pathogenic, but the latter case is extremely rare.

Understand moreover that human to human transition, as occurs in STDs, is particularly attractive from a germ agent's point of view because it doesn't have to develop adaptations to survive intermediary hosts (like mosquitoes) or intermediary environments (like water or air borne pathogens) but can simply reside in its native environment (the human body) and let the humans do the transmission work for it.


They started with monkeys/apes i think.
As to how they spread to humans...well,i'd say that some caveman ancestor of ours felt lonely and depressed and...well you can figure out the rest.:laugh:

Har har har, NO.

This idiotic idea has been in vogue particularly among white supremacists who impute certain sexual practices upon Africans and has (somewhat unsurprisingly) entered popular fascination.

Although one can refute it any number of ways, perhaps the most straightforward is basic epidemiology. In order for an infection to spread, it must be either insanely contagious or infect a lot of people to start. The transmission rates of AIDS (or any other real STD) pretty much rule out the former, which means that the disease almost certainly had several carriers when it first appeared. Now one or two extremely sick deviants might be able to transmit the disease, but unless quite literal monkey business is more widespread than is even remotely credible, that they could form the basis of any long-term epidimic would be a virtual statistical impossibility.

AIDS/HIV in particular is pretty much narrowed down to one of two (not mutually exclusive) sources - the most likely source is that a monkey infected with a weird strain of the virus bit somebody several decades ago and infected them. The alternative (and now less accepted) theory is that it came from consuming bush meat. Almost certainly it was some combination of the two - hunters/butchers of bushmeat were the ones who got it, and in the crowded conditions of colonial market cities where traditional food sources had disappeared and where bushmeat was coming into vogue, a hithertho dormant strain really took off.

It is no surprise that hitherto all the research done in HIV/AID medical history bears this out. That the "sick fucks" theory lives on almost certainly reflects the idiotic pervisions of people who think of it as even remotely credible far more than scientific fact.

[GatesofLenin]

Bad news for honey lovers here. Apparently honey bees are dying in great numbers the past 5 years due to a rise in AIDS-like std's among the species. So you see, we're not the only species with STD problems, think of the bees!

[Smyg]

Will someone please think of the bees?!

[GatesofLenin]

Will someone please think of the bees?!

You'll cry when honey disappears :crying:

[Smyg]

My grandfather was a beekepeer. I know their importance perfectly well. :crying:

[bcbm]

honey is really the least thing to worry about with a bee die off

[Rafiq]

I hate bees. If only we could somehow replicate their exact production of honey, than we can kill all of them.

Honestly I want death to all insects and bugs. Disgusting creatures. Especially mosquitos. Fuck Mosquitos!

[Smyg]

They're an incredibly vital part of the ecosystem. Remember what happened when Mao decided to kill all the birds - the ecosystem went apeshit.

[Rafiq]

Yeah well screw the ecosystem as it stands today. Maybe one day we'll come up with a substitution for it, using robots or some shit, than we can murder all the damn bugs.

[El Louton]

They're an incredibly vital part of the ecosystem. Remember what happened when Mao decided to kill all the birds - the ecosystem went apeshit.

No sorry, tell me?

[Smyg]

The Four Pests Campaign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign), also known as the "let's fucking kill some birds" campaign. Mao decided that all rats, mosquitos, flies and sparrows (who ate grains) had to die, and started a crusade against them. The targeted species of birds almost went completely extinct during this massive campaign. Turned out to be a rather bad thing, as the sparrows ate way more insects than they did grains. With no predators to keep the population down, the locusts went wild and swarmed the country. Contributed a lot to the famine. So, yeah, bad decision.

[Rafiq]

At first I thought the four pests canpaign was a joke created by unencyclopedia. The I found out it was real and pledged never to be a Maoist.

[Smyg]

Yeah well screw the ecosystem as it stands today. Maybe one day we'll come up with a substitution for it, using robots or some shit, than we can murder all the damn bugs.

What a wonderful world you desire.

[El Louton]

Oh thanks, sounds like a well thought through plan!

[Rafiq]

What a wonderful world you desire.

Okay, I know it's not realistic, but I really don't like bugs. At all.

Had I have been in Mao's place I would have started the 39094234234235234 pests campaign.

(just kidding)