How East Germany Fabricated the Myth of HIV Being Man-Made

Abstract

Despite the fact that the origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being a contamination and a mutation originating from primates is well-documented alternative narratives are often being heard ofespecially in sub-Saharan Africa. One such narrative is about HIV being man-made in a military laboratory in the United States. In this article, it is shown how this narrative was fabricated by the intelligence services in East Germany (German Democratic Republic – GDR) as part of the ideological warfare during the Cold War. The purpose of this article is to put an end to a long-lasting conspiracy theory, which is still alive and may create diversion from serious research on the topic.