title: Anu Malik

text: However, in 1990, Malik began changing his music style on the recommendation of Anuradha Paudwal which would become his trademark style. Early songs in that trademark style included "Maa Hi Mandir" by Mohammad Aziz and the hit song "Aaine Ke Sau Tukde" by Kumar Sanu from "Maa" (1991), "Hum Nahin To Tum Nahin" and "Teri Zulfein Shaam Si Roshan" from "Ramgarh Ke Sholay" (1991), "Jaanam Jaanam Jaanam" from "Virodhi" (1992) and "Choone Se Tere" from "Dil Ne Ikraar Kiya" (1992). Other hit songs during that period included "Dil Diwane Ka Dola Dildaar Ke Liye" from "Tahalka" (1992) and "Is Pyar Se Meri Taraf Na Dekho" from "Chamatkar" (1992). It was during this era that he also modified his name to Anu Malik.


title: Anu Malik

text: The year 1993 marked a turning point in Malik's career as it was the most successful year of his career at that time. His first release that year was "Phool Aur Angaar" which was a huge success. Malik received his first taste of success with Mahesh Bhatt's television film "Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee" which featured superhit songs including "Badalon Mein Chup Raha Hai", "Dil Mein Sanam Ki Soorat" and "Tere Dar Par Sanam Chale Aaye". The success of the film was followed by Bhatt's directorial "Sir" which had hit songs such as "Sun Sun Barsaat Ki Dhun" and "Yeh Ujli Chandni". His final release of that year was "Baazigar" which was a huge success with the songs "Baazigar O Baazigar", "Kitabein Bahut Si", "Chhupana Bhi Nahi Aata", "Aye Mere Humsafar" and most notably "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein", for which Malik rapped a few lines. It sold 10million units and became the year's best selling soundtrack for Bollywood. It catapulted Malik into stardom and established him as one of the top music directors of Bollywood. Malik won his first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for "Baazigar" at the 39th Filmfare Awards in 1994.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik would join Nadeem-Shravan and Jatin–Lalit as one of Bollywood's top music directors throughout the 1990s with popular and successful soundtracks such as "Khuddar" (1994), "Imtihaan" (1994), "Aa Gale Lag Jaa" (1994), "Vijaypath" (1994), "Main Khiladi Tu Anari" (1994), "Naajayaz" (1995), "The Gambler" (1995), "Akele Hum Akele Tum" (1995), "Chaahat" (1996), "Diljale" (1996), "Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi" (1996), "Daraar" (1996), "Krishna" (1996), "Virasat" (1997), "Judwaa" (1997), "Border" (1997), "Ishq" (1997), "Ankhon Mein Tum Ho" (1997), "China Gate" (1998), "Soldier" (1998), "Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain" (1999), "Jaanam Samjha Karo" (1999), "Biwi No.1" (1999), "Haseena Maan Jaayegi" (1999) and "Baadshah" (1999). He received further nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for "Main Khiladi Tu Anari", "Akele Hum Akele Tum", "Border", "Soldier", "Biwi No.1" and "Haseena Maan Jaayegi" during the decade.


title: Anu Malik

text: Aside from composing, Malik lent his voice for his compositions on various occasions such as "Maari Gayi" from "Jaanam" (1992), "My Adorable Darling" and the rapping portion of "Main Khiladi Tu Anari" from "Main Khiladi Tu Anari" (1994) and "Oonchi Hai Building" and "East or West" from "Judwaa" (1997). He also released several albums in the Indipop genre which he sang by himself including "Tera Chehra" (1995), English album "Eyes" (1997), "Lafda Na Ho Jaye" (1997) and "Ho Raha Hai Sama" (1999).


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik had major success in the year 2000 with best-selling soundtracks including "Hera Pheri", "Badal", "Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega", "Aaghaaz", "Fiza", "Josh" and "Refugee". His soundtrack for "Refugee" was critically acclaimed as he became the only music director to win the Filmfare Special Award for his compositions in the movie at the 46th Filmfare Awards. He also received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for "Refugee" at the 48th National Film Awards. In 2001, Malik had best-selling albums with "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke", "Yaadein", "Asoka", "Lajja", "Ajnabee" and "Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai". His soundtrack for "Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai" earned him his twelfth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and his soundtrack for "Asoka" earned him a nomination for the Screen Award for Best Music Director. His soundtracks during the year 2002 went unnoticed but he had a resurgence in 2003 with best-selling albums "Ishq Vishk", "Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon", "Khushi", "Munnabhai MBBS" and "Inteha" and "". He received critical acclaim for "LOC: Kargil", which earned him his thirteenth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director and won him his first Screen Award for Best Music Direction.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik found success with successful best-selling soundtracks such as "Main Hoon Na", "Murder" and "Fida" in 2004. His soundtrack for "Main Hoon Na" earned critical acclaim and won Malik his second Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, his second Screen Award for Best Music Director and his first Zee Cine Award for Best Music Director.


title: Anu Malik

text: The mid-2000s marked the rise of a new generation of music directors including A. R. Rahman, Himesh Reshammiya, Vishal–Shekhar, Pritam Chakraborty and Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and the amount of Malik's work began reducing after 2005 and he accepted his new role as a regular judge on the reality singing competition show "Indian Idol" on Sony Entertainment Television, beginning with its first season in 2004. He received a nomination for the Screen Award for Best Music Director for "Jaan-E-Mann" (2006). The year 2007 marked for the first time since 1983 that Malik composed soundtrack for only one film "Undertrial".


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik remained prominent as a judge for various reality television shows but lost major offers as a music director in the coming years. His recent work includes "Kambakkht Ishq" (2009), "Yamla Pagla Deewana" (2011), "Shootout at Wadala" (2013), "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" (2015), "Begum Jaan" (2017) and "Sui Dhaaga" (2018). He won his second Zee Cine Award for Best Music Director for "Dum Laga Ke Haisha", which marked his reunion with Kumar Sanu since "No Entry" (2005) as well as his first collaboration with Yash Raj Films.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik has worked with many Indian playback singers including Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle, Amit Kumar, and others. During the '80s, he mostly worked with singers such as Mohammad Aziz, Shabbir Kumar, Manhar Udhas, Suresh Wadkar, Nitin Mukesh and Anwar.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik worked with Alisha Chinai to compose the commercially successful singles "Sexy Sexy" and "Ruk Ruk Ruk" from "Vijaypath", "Chot Dil Pe Lagi" from "Ishq Vishk" and the songs from "Love Story 2050". He also worked with Indian film lyricist Javed Akhtar in films including "Border", "Refugee" and "Umrao Jaan".


title: Anu Malik

text: Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik have sung in most of the singles composed by Malik. This trio collaborated on films such as: "Sir", "Phool Aur Angaar", "Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee", "Vijaypath", "Baazigar", "Main Khiladi Tu Anari", "Imtihaan", "Chamatkar", "Gambler", "Akele Hum Akele Tum", "Duplicate", "Kareeb", "Soldier", "Aarzoo", "Ishq Vishk" and "Fida". Sanu and Yagnik were regular singers for Anu Malik and Malik created many songs individually with Sanu such as "Aaine Ke Sau Tukde" from "Maa" (1991) and the single "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen" from "Baazigar" (1993).


title: Anu Malik

text: Following the death of music director R. D. Burman, Malik has completed music for Burman's unfinished film projects "", "Gang" and "".


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik has been one of the judges on the TV show "Indian Idol" since the show's inception in 2004 until the format of the show changed into "Indian Idol Junior" in 2013. When "Indian Idol" returned in 2016 for its 9th season, Malik was again one of the judges, remaining until October 2018 when he left the show following allegations of sexual harassment. Malik returned as a judge in 2019 for the 11th season, but left the show again after three weeks. In the show's 12th season in 2021, Malik appeared as a guest in one episode, and later acted as a replacement judge when the regular judges had to isolate due to the covid-19 pandemic.


title: Anu Malik

text: Farah Khan and Malik were the judges for "Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega", a variety entertainment reality show that airs on Sony Entertainment Television (India) on weekdays.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik was the only judge from India on "Asian Idol", who represented "Indian Idol" winner Abhijeet Sawant, with other judges Indra Lesmana, Paul Moss, Pilita Corrales, Ken Lim and Siu Black.


title: Anu Malik

text: Although he is not a mainstream singer, Malik does playback singing. Written off as a singer in his early days ("Julie Julie," for instance), he continues to sing his own compositions, with songs such as "Aaila Re" from the movie "Jung", "Jaanam Samjha Karo" from Jaanam Samjha Karo, "Ek Garam Chaye ki Pyali" from the movie "Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega", "Gori Gori" in "Main Hoon Na" or the recent "Meri Jane Jigar" in "Deewane Huye Paagal". Among his works are "Oonchi Hai Building" and "East or West India is the best" from the movie "Judwaa". and the rap part of "Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen" of "Baazigar".


title: Anu Malik

text: While he sings entire songs for some movies, especially those starring Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar and Shahid Kapoor (in "Deewane Huye Paagal" he sang almost every song), and has also sung as part of a chorus in "Mehbooba Mehbooba" in the film "Ajnabee", and "Tumse Milke Dilka Jo Haal" for "Main Hoon Na".


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik has faced criticism for using music written by other composers, for instance in the film "The Gentleman" where the music of several songs credited to Malik was written by A. R. Rahman, and "Mera Piya Ghar Aaya" in "Yaarana" which was allegedly identical to a song by the same name written by Pakistani Qawwali musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1948–1997). Khan was reportedly tolerant towards Bollywood music directors plagiarising his songs, but disapproved strongly of Malik's using the music of a song which originally had a religious theme as a secular love song. According to Khan, Malik had repeatedly said to him that he loved his music and was actually showing admiration by using his tunes, and in an interview for IANS Malik dismissed all plagiarism allegations, saying that "no one in this world is original" and claiming that all similarities are due to there being "just seven notes in music".


title: Anu Malik

text: In October 2018, in the wake of the MeToo movement in India, Malik was accused of sexual harassment by several women in separate claims. One accusation came from singer Shweta Pandit, who said he had made an unwanted sexual pass at her when she was 15 years old. Lyricist Sameer came out in his support, saying that he was present during the audition where the harassment of Pandit was claimed to have happened. Sona Mohapatra and Neha Bhasin also accused Malik of predatory behaviour. Malik denied the allegations, but the public backlash resulted in him leaving as a judge for season 10 of "Indian Idol". Alisha Chinai, who had sued Malik for molestation in the 1990s, supported the allegations. Sonu Nigam also came out in support of Malik, claiming that he had not seen any proof that the allegations were true. In 2019, Malik was reinstated as a judge on Season 11 of "Indian Idol", a decision that resulted in heavy criticism. Malik stepped down, claiming that he had decided to take a break as he was unable to focus on his work on the show. On 17 January 2020, National Commission for Women closed the sexual harassment case on Anu Malik due to lack of substantial evidence, but clarifying that it could be reopened if evidence is provided. Sona Mohapatra criticised the commission's decision.


title: Anu Malik

text: Malik was awarded a Silver Lotus for J.P. Dutta's "Refugee" and the Filmfare Special Jury Award. He also won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for "Main Hoon Na" and "Baazigar".


title: Anu Malik

text: He is a seven-time winner from 42 nominations for best music director, including 14 nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins in the emergence of one specific strain – HIV-1 subgroup M – in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo (now Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the 1920s.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is more virulent, easily transmitted and is the cause of the vast majority of HIV infections globally. The pandemic strain of HIV-1 is closely related to a virus found in chimpanzees of the subspecies "Pan troglodytes troglodytes", which live in the forests of the Central African nations of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic. HIV-2 is less transmittable and is largely confined to West Africa, along with its closest relative, a virus of the sooty mangabey ("Cercocebus atys atys"), an Old World monkey inhabiting southern Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and western Ivory Coast.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Research in this area is conducted using molecular phylogenetics, comparing viral genomic sequences to determine relatedness.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Scientists generally accept that the known strains (or groups) of HIV-1 are most closely related to the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) endemic in wild ape populations of West Central African forests. In particular, each of the known HIV-1 strains is either closely related to the SIV that infects the chimpanzee subspecies "Pan troglodytes troglodytes" (SIVcpz) or closely related to the SIV that infects western lowland gorillas ("Gorilla gorilla gorilla"), called SIVgor. The pandemic HIV-1 strain (group M or Main) and a rare strain found only in a few Cameroonian people (group N) are clearly derived from SIVcpz strains endemic in "Pan troglodytes troglodytes" chimpanzee populations living in Cameroon. Another very rare HIV-1 strain (group P) is clearly derived from SIVgor strains of Cameroon. Finally, the primate ancestor of HIV-1 group O, a strain infecting 100,000 people mostly from Cameroon but also from neighbouring countries, was confirmed in 2006 to be SIVgor. The pandemic HIV-1 group M is most closely related to the SIVcpz collected from the southeastern rain forests of Cameroon (modern East Province) near the Sangha River. Thus, this region is presumably where the virus was first transmitted from chimpanzees to humans. However, reviews of the epidemiological evidence of early HIV-1 infection in stored blood samples, and of old cases of AIDS in Central Africa, have led many scientists to believe that HIV-1 group M early human centre was probably not in Cameroon, but rather further south in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then the Belgian Congo), more probably in its capital city, Kinshasa (formerly Léopoldville).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Using HIV-1 sequences preserved in human biological samples along with estimates of viral mutation rates, scientists calculate that the jump from chimpanzee to human probably happened during the late 19th or early 20th century, a time of rapid urbanisation and colonisation in equatorial Africa. Exactly when the zoonosis occurred is not known. Some molecular dating studies suggest that HIV-1 group M had its most recent common ancestor (MRCA) (that is, started to spread in the human population) in the early 20th century, probably between 1915 and 1941. A study published in 2008, analyzing viral sequences recovered from a biopsy made in Kinshasa, in 1960, along with previously known sequences, suggested a common ancestor between 1873 and 1933 (with central estimates varying between 1902 and 1921). Genetic recombination had earlier been thought to "seriously confound" such phylogenetic analysis, but later "work has suggested that recombination is not likely to systematically bias [results]", although recombination is "expected to increase variance". The results of a 2008 phylogenetics study support the later work and indicate that HIV evolves "fairly reliably". Further research was hindered due to the primates being critically endangered. Sample analyses resulted in little data due to the rarity of experimental material. The researchers, however, were able to hypothesize a phylogeny from the gathered data. They were also able to use the molecular clock of a specific strain of HIV to determine the initial date of transmission, which is estimated to be around 1915–1931.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Similar research has been undertaken with SIV strains collected from several wild sooty mangabey ("Cercocebus atys atys") (SIVsmm) populations of the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ivory Coast. The resulting phylogenetic analyses show that the viruses most closely related to the two strains of HIV-2 that spread considerably in humans (HIV-2 groups A and B) are the SIVsmm found in the sooty mangabeys of the Tai forest, in western Ivory Coast.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: There are six additional known HIV-2 groups, each having been found in just one person. They all seem to derive from independent transmissions from sooty mangabeys to humans. Groups C and D have been found in two people from Liberia, groups E and F have been discovered in two people from Sierra Leone, and groups G and H have been detected in two people from the Ivory Coast. These HIV-2 strains are probably dead-end infections, and each of them is most closely related to SIVsmm strains from sooty mangabeys living in the same country where the human infection was found.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Molecular dating studies suggest that both the epidemic groups (A and B) started to spread among humans between 1905 and 1961 (with the central estimates varying between 1932 and 1945).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: According to the natural transfer theory (also called "hunter theory" or "bushmeat theory"), in the "simplest and most plausible explanation for the cross-species transmission" of SIV or HIV (post mutation), the virus was transmitted from an ape or monkey to a human when a hunter or bushmeat vendor/handler was bitten or cut while hunting or butchering the animal. The resulting exposure to blood or other bodily fluids of the animal can result in SIV infection. Prior to WWII, some Sub-Saharan Africans were forced out of the rural areas because of the European demand for resources. Since rural Africans were not keen to pursue agricultural practices in the jungle, they turned to non-domesticated animals as their primary source of meat. This over-exposure to bushmeat and malpractice of butchery increased blood-to-blood contact, which then increased the probability of transmission. A recent serological survey showed that human infections by SIV are not rare in Central Africa: the percentage of people showing seroreactivity to antigens—evidence of current or past SIV infection—was 2.3% among the general population of Cameroon, 7.8% in villages where bushmeat is hunted or used, and 17.1% in the most exposed people of these villages. How the SIV virus would have transformed into HIV after infection of the hunter or bushmeat handler from the ape/monkey is still a matter of debate, although natural selection would favour any viruses capable of adjusting so that they could infect and reproduce in the T cells of a human host.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The discovery of the main HIV/SIV phylogenetic relationships permits explaining broad HIV biogeography: the early centres of the HIV-1 groups were in Central Africa, where the primate reservoirs of the related SIVcpz and SIVgor viruses (chimpanzees and gorillas) exist; similarly, the HIV-2 groups had their centres in West Africa, where sooty mangabeys, which harbour the related SIVsmm virus, exist. However, these relationships do not explain more detailed patterns of biogeography, such as why epidemic HIV-2 groups (A and B) only evolved in the Ivory Coast, which is one of only six countries harbouring the sooty mangabey. It is also unclear why the SIVcpz endemic in the chimpanzee subspecies "Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii" (inhabiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania) did not spawn an epidemic HIV-1 strain to humans, while the Democratic Republic of Congo was the main centre of HIV-1 group M, a virus descended from SIVcpz strains of a subspecies ("Pan troglodytes troglodytes") that does not exist in this country. It is clear that the several HIV-1 and HIV-2 strains descend from SIVcpz, SIVgor, and SIVsmm viruses, and that bushmeat practice provides the most plausible cause of cross-species transfer to humans. However, some loose ends remain.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: It is not yet explained why only four HIV groups (HIV-1 groups M and O, and HIV-2 groups A and B) spread considerably in human populations, despite bushmeat practices being widespread in Central and West Africa, and the resulting human SIV infections being common.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: It also remains unexplained why all epidemic HIV groups emerged in humans nearly simultaneously, and only in the 20th century, despite very old human exposure to SIV (a 2010 phylogenetic study demonstrated that SIV is at least tens of thousands of years old).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Several of the theories of HIV origin accept the established knowledge of the HIV/SIV phylogenetic relationships, and also accept that bushmeat practice was the most likely cause of the initial transfer to humans. All of them propose that the simultaneous epidemic emergences of four HIV groups in the late 19th-early 20th century, and the lack of previous known emergences, are explained by new factor(s) that appeared in the relevant African regions in that timeframe. These new factor(s) would have acted either to increase human exposures to SIV, to help it to adapt to the human organism by mutation (thus enhancing its between-humans transmissibility), or to cause an initial burst of transmissions crossing an epidemiological threshold, and therefore increasing the probability of continued spread.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Genetic studies of the virus suggested in 2008 that the most recent common ancestor of the HIV-1 M group dates back to the Belgian Congo city of Léopoldville (modern Kinshasa), circa 1910. Proponents of this dating link the HIV epidemic with the emergence of colonialism and growth of large colonial African cities, leading to social changes, including a higher degree of non-monogamous sexual activity, the spread of prostitution, and the concomitant high frequency of genital ulcer diseases (such as syphilis) in nascent colonial cities.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In 2014, a study conducted by scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Leuven, in Belgium, revealed that because approximately one million people every year would flow through the prominent city of Kinshasa, which served as the origin of the first known HIV cases in the 1920s, passengers riding on the region's Belgian railway trains were able to spread the virus to larger areas. The study also identified a roaring sex trade, rapid population growth and unsterilised needles used in health clinics as other factors which contributed to the emergence of the Africa HIV epidemic.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Beatrice Hahn, Paul M. Sharp, and their colleagues proposed that "[the epidemic emergence of HIV] most likely reflects changes in population structure and behaviour in Africa during the 20th century and perhaps medical interventions that provided the opportunity for rapid human-to-human spread of the virus". After the Scramble for Africa started in the 1880s, European colonial powers established cities, towns, and other colonial stations. A largely masculine labor force was hastily recruited to work in fluvial and sea ports, railways, other infrastructures, and in plantations. This disrupted traditional tribal values and favored casual sexual activity with an increased number of partners. In the nascent cities women felt relatively liberated from rural tribal rules and many remained unmarried or divorced during long periods, this being rare in African traditional societies. This was accompanied by unprecedented increase in people's movements.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Michael Worobey and colleagues observed that the growth of cities probably played a role in the epidemic emergence of HIV, since the phylogenetic dating of the two older strains of HIV-1 (groups M and O), suggest that these viruses started to spread soon after the main Central African colonial cities were founded.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Amit Chitnis, Diana Rawls, and Jim Moore proposed that HIV may have emerged epidemically as a result of harsh conditions, forced labor, displacement, and unsafe injection and vaccination practices associated with colonialism, particularly in French Equatorial Africa. The workers in plantations, construction projects, and other colonial enterprises were supplied with bushmeat, which would have contributed to an increase in hunting and, it follows, a higher incidence of human exposure to SIV. Several historical sources support the view that bushmeat hunting indeed increased, both because of the necessity to supply workers and because firearms became more widely available.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The colonial authorities also gave many vaccinations against smallpox, and injections, of which many would be made without sterilising the equipment between uses. Chitnis "et al." proposed that both these parenteral risks and the prostitution associated with forced labor camps could have caused serial transmission (or serial passage) of SIV between humans (see discussion of this in the next section). In addition, they proposed that the conditions of extreme stress associated with forced labor could depress the immune system of workers, therefore prolonging the primary acute infection period of someone newly infected by SIV, thus increasing the odds of both adaptation of the virus to humans, and of further transmissions.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The authors proposed that HIV-1 originated in the area of French Equatorial Africa in the early 20th century (when the colonial abuses and forced labor were at their peak). Later research established that these theories were mostly correct: HIV-1 groups M and O started to spread in humans in late 19th–early 20th century. In addition, all groups of HIV-1 descend from either SIVcpz or SIVgor from apes living to the west of the Ubangi River, either in countries that belonged to the French Equatorial Africa federation of colonies, in Equatorial Guinea (then a Spanish colony), or in Cameroon (which was a German colony between 1884 and 1916, and then fell to Allied forces in World War I, and had most of its area administered by France, in close association with French Equatorial Africa).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: This theory was later dubbed "Heart of Darkness" by Jim Moore, alluding to the book of the same title written by Joseph Conrad, the main focus of which is colonial abuses in equatorial Africa.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In several articles published since 2001, Preston Marx, Philip Alcabes, and Ernest Drucker proposed that HIV emerged because of rapid serial human-to-human transmission of SIV (after a bushmeat hunter or handler became SIV-infected) through unsafe or unsterile injections. Although both Chitnis "et al." and Sharp "et al." also suggested that this may have been one of the major risk factors at play in HIV emergence (see above), Marx "et al." enunciated the underlying mechanisms in greater detail, and wrote the first review of the injection campaigns made in colonial Africa.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Central to the Marx "et al." argument is the concept of adaptation by serial passage (or serial transmission): an adventitious virus (or other pathogen) can increase its biological adaptation to a new host species if it is rapidly transmitted between hosts, while each host is still in the acute infection period. This process favors the accumulation of adaptive mutations more rapidly, therefore increasing the odds that a better adapted viral variant will appear in the host before the immune system suppresses the virus. Such better adapted variants could then survive in the human host for longer than the short acute infection period, in high numbers (high viral load), which would grant it more possibilities of epidemic spread.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Marx "et al." reported experiments of cross-species transfer of SIV in captive monkeys (some of which made by themselves), in which the use of serial passage helped to adapt SIV to the new monkey species after passage by three or four animals.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In agreement with this model is also the fact that, while both HIV-1 and HIV-2 attain substantial viral loads in the human organism, adventitious SIV infecting humans seldom does so: people with SIV antibodies often have very low or even undetectable SIV viral load. This suggests that both HIV-1 and HIV-2 are adapted to humans, and serial passage could have been the process responsible for it.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Marx "et al." proposed that unsterile injections (that is, injections where the needle or syringe is reused without sterilization or cleaning between uses), which were likely very prevalent in Africa, during both the colonial period and afterwards, provided the mechanism of serial passage that permitted HIV to adapt to humans, therefore explaining why it emerged epidemically only in the 20th century.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Marx "et al." emphasize the massive number of injections administered in Africa after antibiotics were introduced (around 1950) as being the most likely implicated in the origin of HIV because, by these times (roughly in the period 1950 to 1970), injection intensity in Africa was maximal. They argued that a serial passage chain of 3 or 4 transmissions between humans is an unlikely event (the probability of transmission after a needle reuse is something between 0.3% and 2%, and only a few people have an acute SIV infection at any time), and so HIV emergence may have required the very high frequency of injections of the antibiotic era.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The molecular dating studies place the initial spread of the epidemic HIV groups before that time (see above). According to Marx "et al.", these studies could have overestimated the age of the HIV groups, because they depend on a molecular clock assumption, may not have accounted for the effects of natural selection in the viruses, and the serial passage process alone would be associated with strong natural selection.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: David Gisselquist proposed that the mass injection campaigns to treat trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) in Central Africa were responsible for the emergence of HIV-1. Unlike Marx "et al.", Gisselquist argued that the millions of unsafe injections administered during these campaigns were sufficient to spread rare HIV infections into an epidemic, and that evolution of HIV through serial passage was not essential to the emergence of the HIV epidemic in the 20th century.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: This theory focuses on injection campaigns that peaked in the period 1910–40, that is, around the time the HIV-1 groups started to spread. It also focuses on the fact that many of the injections in these campaigns were intravenous (which are more likely to transmit SIV/HIV than subcutaneous or intramuscular injections), and many of the patients received many (often more than 10) injections per year, therefore increasing the odds of SIV serial passage.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Jacques Pépin and Annie-Claude Labbé reviewed the colonial health reports of Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa for the period 1921–59, calculating the incidences of the diseases requiring intravenous injections. They concluded that trypanosomiasis, leprosy, yaws, and syphilis were responsible for most intravenous injections. Schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, and vaccinations against smallpox represented lower parenteral risks: schistosomiasis cases were relatively few; tuberculosis patients only became numerous after mid-century; and there were few smallpox vaccinations in the lifetime of each person.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The authors suggested that the very high prevalence of the Hepatitis C virus in southern Cameroon and forested areas of French Equatorial Africa (around 40–50%) can be better explained by the unsterile injections used to treat yaws, because this disease was much more prevalent than syphilis, trypanosomiasis, and leprosy in these areas. They suggested that all these parenteral risks caused not only the massive spread of Hepatitis C but also the spread of other pathogens, and the emergence of HIV-1: "the same procedures could have exponentially amplified HIV-1, from a single hunter/cook occupationally infected with SIVcpz to several thousand patients treated with arsenicals or other drugs, a threshold beyond which sexual transmission could prosper." They do not suggest specifically serial passage as the mechanism of adaptation.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: According to Pépin's 2011 book, "The Origins of AIDS", the virus can be traced to a central African bush hunter in 1921, with colonial medical campaigns using improperly sterilized syringe and needles playing a key role in enabling a future epidemic. Pépin concludes that AIDS spread silently in Africa for decades, fueled by urbanization and prostitution since the initial cross-species infection. Pépin also claims that the virus was brought to the Americas by a Haitian teacher returning home from Zaire in the 1960s.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Sex tourism and contaminated blood transfusion centers ultimately propelled AIDS to public consciousness in the 1980s and a worldwide pandemic.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: João Dinis de Sousa, Viktor Müller, Philippe Lemey, and Anne-Mieke Vandamme proposed that HIV became epidemic through sexual serial transmission, in nascent colonial cities, helped by a high frequency of genital ulcers, caused by genital ulcer diseases (GUD). GUD are simply sexually transmitted diseases that cause genital ulcers; examples are syphilis, chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum, and genital herpes. These diseases increase the probability of HIV transmission dramatically, from around 0.01–0.1% to 4–43% per heterosexual act, because the genital ulcers provide a portal of viral entry, and contain many activated T cells expressing the CCR5 co-receptor, the main cell targets of HIV.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Sousa "et al." use molecular dating techniques to estimate the time when each HIV group split from its closest SIV lineage. Each HIV group necessarily crossed to humans between this time and the time when it started to spread (the time of the MRCA), because after the MRCA certainly all lineages were already in humans, and before the split with the closest simian strain, the lineage was in a simian. HIV-1 groups M and O split from their closest SIVs around 1931 and 1915, respectively. This information, together with the datations of the HIV groups' MRCAs, mean that all HIV groups likely crossed to humans in the early 20th century.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The authors reviewed colonial medical articles and archived medical reports of the countries at or near the ranges of chimpanzees, gorillas and sooty mangabeys, and found that genital ulcer diseases (GUDs) peaked in the colonial cities during their early growth period (up to 1935). The colonial authorities recruited men to work in railways, fluvial and sea ports, and other infrastructure projects, and most of these men did not bring their wives with them. Then, the highly male-biased sex ratio favoured prostitution, which in its turn caused an explosion of GUD (especially syphilis and chancroid). After the mid-1930s, people's movements were more tightly controlled, and mass surveys and treatments (of arsenicals and other drugs) were organized, and so the GUD incidences started to decline. They declined even further after World War II, because of the heavy use of antibiotics, so that, by the late 1950s, Léopoldville (which is the probable center of HIV-1 group M) had a very low GUD incidence. Similar processes happened in the cities of Cameroon and Ivory Coast, where HIV-1 group O and HIV-2 respectively evolved.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Therefore, the peak GUD incidences in cities have a good temporal coincidence with the period when all main HIV groups crossed to humans and started to spread. In addition, the authors gathered evidence that syphilis and the other GUDs were, like injections, absent from the densely forested areas of Central and West Africa before organized colonialism socially disrupted these areas (starting in the 1880s). Thus, this theory also potentially explains why HIV emerged only after the late 19th century.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Uli Linke has argued that the practice of female genital mutilation (either or both of clitoridectomy and infibulation) is responsible for the high incidence of AIDS in Africa, since intercourse with a female who has undergone clitoridectomy is conducive to exchange of blood.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Male circumcision may reduce the probability of HIV acquisition by men. Leaving aside blood transfusions, the highest HIV-1 transmissibility ever measured was from female prostitutes with 85% prevalence of HIV to uncircumcised men with GUD—"A cumulative 43% ... seroconverted to HIV-1 after a single sexual exposure." There was no seroconversion in the absence of male GUD. Sousa "et al." reasoned that the adaptation and epidemic emergence of each HIV group may have required such extreme conditions, and thus reviewed the existing ethnographic literature for patterns of male circumcision and hunting of apes and monkeys for bushmeat, focusing on the period 1880–1960, and on most of the 318 ethnic groups living in Central and West Africa. They also collected censuses and other literature showing the ethnic composition of colonial cities in this period. Then, they estimated the circumcision frequencies of the Central African cities over time.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Sousa "et al." charts reveal that male circumcision frequencies were much lower in several cities of western and central Africa in the early 20th century than they are currently. The reason is that many ethnic groups not performing circumcision by that time gradually adopted it, to imitate other ethnic groups and enhance the social acceptance of their boys (colonialism produced massive intermixing between African ethnic groups). About 15–30% of men in Léopoldville and Douala in the early 20th century should be uncircumcised, and these cities were the probable centers of HIV-1 groups M and O, respectively.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The authors studied early circumcision frequencies in 12 cities of Central and West Africa, to test if this variable correlated with HIV emergence. This correlation was strong for HIV-2: among 6 West African cities that could have received immigrants infected with SIVsmm, the two cities from the Ivory Coast studied (Abidjan and Bouaké) had much higher frequency of uncircumcised men (60–85%) than the others, and epidemic HIV-2 groups emerged initially in this country only. This correlation was less clear for HIV-1 in Central Africa.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Sousa "et al." then built computer simulations to test if an 'ill-adapted SIV' (meaning a simian immunodeficiency virus already infecting a human but incapable of transmission beyond the short acute infection period) could spread in colonial cities. The simulations used parameters of sexual transmission obtained from the current HIV literature. They modelled people's 'sexual links', with different levels of sexual partner change among different categories of people (prostitutes, single women with several partners a year, married women, and men), according to data obtained from modern studies of sexual activity in African cities. The simulations let the parameters (city size, proportion of people married, GUD frequency, male circumcision frequency, and transmission parameters) vary, and explored several scenarios. Each scenario was run 1,000 times, to test the probability of SIV generating long chains of sexual transmission. The authors postulated that such long chains of sexual transmission were necessary for the SIV strain to adapt better to humans, becoming an HIV capable of further epidemic emergence.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The main result was that genital ulcer frequency was by far the most decisive factor. For the GUD levels prevailing in Léopoldville in the early 20th century, long chains of SIV transmission had a high probability. For the lower GUD levels existing in the same city in the late 1950s (see above), they were much less likely. And without GUD (a situation typical of villages in forested equatorial Africa before colonialism) SIV could not spread at all. City size was not an important factor. The authors propose that these findings explain the temporal patterns of HIV emergence: no HIV emerging in tens of thousands of years of human slaughtering of apes and monkeys, several HIV groups emerging in the nascent, GUD-riddled, colonial cities, and no epidemically successful HIV group emerging in mid-20th century, when GUD was more controlled, and cities were much bigger.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Male circumcision had little to moderate effect in their simulations, but, given the geographical correlation found, the authors propose that it could have had an indirect role, either by increasing genital ulcer disease itself (it is known that syphilis, chancroid, and several other GUDs have higher incidences in uncircumcised men), or by permitting further spread of the HIV strain, after the first chains of sexual transmission permitted adaptation to the human organism.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: One of the main advantages of this theory is stressed by the authors: "It [the theory] also offers a conceptual simplicity because it proposes as causal factors for SIV adaptation to humans and initial spread the very same factors that most promote the continued spread of HIV nowadays: promiscuous [sic] sex, particularly involving sex workers, GUD, and possibly lack of circumcision."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Iatrogenic theories propose that medical interventions were responsible for HIV origins. By proposing factors that only appeared in Central and West Africa after the late 19th century, they seek to explain why all HIV groups also started after that.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The theories centred on the role of parenteral risks, such as unsterile injections, transfusions, or smallpox vaccinations are accepted as plausible by most scientists of the field.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories include several iatrogenic theories, such as the polio vaccine hypothesis which argues that the early oral polio vaccines were contaminated with a chimpanzee virus, leading to the Central African outbreak.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In most non-human primate species, natural SIV infection does not cause a fatal disease (but see below). Comparison of the gene sequence of SIV with HIV should, therefore, provide information about the factors necessary to cause disease in humans. The factors that determine the virulence of HIV as compared to most SIVs are only now being elucidated. Non-human SIVs contain a "nef" gene that down-regulates CD3, CD4, and MHC class I expression; most non-human SIVs, therefore, do not induce immunodeficiency; the HIV-1 "nef" gene, however, has lost its ability to down-regulate CD3, which results in the immune activation and apoptosis that is characteristic of chronic HIV infection.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In addition, a long-term survey of chimpanzees naturally infected with SIVcpz in Gombe National Park, Tanzania found that, contrary to the previous paradigm, chimpanzees with SIVcpz infection do experience an increased mortality, and also suffer from a human AIDS-like illness. SIV pathogenicity in wild animals could exist in other chimpanzee subspecies and other primate species as well, and stay unrecognized by lack of relevant long term studies.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: David Carr was an apprentice printer (usually mistakenly referred to as a sailor; Carr had served in the Navy between 1955 and 1957) from Manchester, England who died on August 31, 1959, and was for some time mistakenly reported to have died from AIDS-defining opportunistic infections (ADOIs). Following the failure of his immune system, he succumbed to pneumonia. Doctors, baffled by what he had died from, preserved 50 of his tissue samples for inspection. In 1990, the tissues were found to be HIV-positive. However, in 1992, a second test by AIDS researcher David Ho found that the strain of HIV present in the tissues was similar to those found in 1990 rather than an earlier strain (which would have mutated considerably over the course of 30 years). He concluded that the DNA samples provided actually came from a patient with AIDS in the 1990s. Upon retesting David Carr's tissues, he found no sign of the virus.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: One of the earliest documented HIV-1 infections was discovered in a preserved blood sample taken in 1959 from a man from Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo. However, it is unknown whether this anonymous person ever developed AIDS and died of its complications.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A second early documented HIV-1 infection was discovered in a preserved lymph node biopsy sample taken in 1960 from a woman from Léopoldville, Belgian Congo.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A strain with a large amount of the genetic material present was dated to 1966 from a sample from a 38-year-old man.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In May 1969 16-year-old African-American Robert Rayford died at the St. Louis City Hospital from Kaposi's sarcoma. In 1987 researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine detected a virus closely related or identical to HIV-1 in his preserved blood and tissues. The doctors who worked on his case at the time suspected he was a prostitute or the victim of sexual abuse, though the patient did not discuss his sexual history with them in detail.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: From 1972 to 1973, researchers drew blood from 75 children in Uganda to serve as controls for a study of Burkitt's lymphoma. In 1985, retroactive testing of the frozen blood serum indicated that antibodies to a virus related to HIV were present in 50 (67%) of the children.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In 1975 and 1976, a Norwegian sailor, with the alias name Arvid Noe, his wife, and his seven-year-old daughter died of AIDS. The sailor had first presented symptoms in 1969, eight years after he first spent time in ports along the West African coastline. A gonorrhea infection during his first African voyage shows he was sexually active at this time. Tissue samples from the sailor and his wife were tested in 1988 and found to contain HIV-1 (Group O).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Grethe Rask was a Danish surgeon who traveled to Zaïre in 1964 then again in 1972 to aid the sick. She was likely directly exposed to blood from many Congolese patients, one of whom infected her. She became unwell from 1974, then returned to Denmark in 1977, with her colleagues baffled by her symptoms. She died of pneumocystis pneumonia in December 1977. Her tissues were examined and tested by her colleagues and found positive in 1987.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: HIV-1 strains were once thought to have arrived in New York City from Haiti around 1971. It spread from New York City to San Francisco around 1976.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: HIV-1 is believed to have arrived in Haiti from central Africa, possibly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo around 1967. The current consensus is that HIV was introduced to Haiti by an unknown individual or individuals who contracted it while working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo circa 1966. A mini-epidemic followed, and circa 1969, yet another unknown individual took HIV from Haiti to the United States. The vast majority of cases of AIDS outside sub-Saharan Africa can be traced back to that single patient. Later, numerous unrelated incidents of AIDS among Haitian immigrants to the U.S. were recorded in the early 1980s. Also, as evidenced by the case of Robert Rayford, isolated occurrences of this infection may have been emerging as early as 1966. The virus eventually entered gay male communities in large United States cities, where a combination of casual, multi-partner sexual activity (with individuals reportedly averaging over 11 unprotected sexual partners per year) and relatively high transmission rates associated with anal intercourse allowed it to spread explosively enough to finally be noticed.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Because of the long incubation period of HIV (up to a decade or longer) before symptoms of AIDS appear, and because of the initially low incidence, HIV was not noticed at first. By the time the first reported cases of AIDS were found in large United States cities, the prevalence of HIV infection in some communities had passed 5%. Worldwide, HIV infection has spread from urban to rural areas, and has appeared in regions such as China and India.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A Canadian airline steward named Gaëtan Dugas was referred to as "Case 057" and later "Patient O" with the alphabet letter "O" standing for "outside Southern California", in an early AIDS study by Dr. William Darrow of the Centers for Disease Control. Because of this, many people had considered Dugas to be responsible for taking HIV to North America. However, HIV reached New York City around 1971 while Dugas did not start work at Air Canada until 1974. In Randy Shilts' 1987 book "And the Band Played On" (and the 1993 movie based on it), Dugas is referred to as AIDS's Patient Zero instead of "Patient O", but neither the book nor the movie states that he had been the first to bring the virus to North America. He was incorrectly called "Patient Zero" because at least 40 of the 248 people known to be infected by HIV in 1983 had had sex with him, or with a person who had sexual intercourse with Dugas.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A volunteer social worker called Betty Williams, a Quaker who worked with the homeless in New York from the seventies and early eighties onwards, has talked about people at that time whose death would be labelled as "junkie flu" or "the dwindles". In an interview for the Act Up Oral History Project in 2008, she said: "Of course, the horror stories came, mainly concerning women who were injection-drug users ... who had PCP pneumonia (Pneumocystis pneumonia), and were told that they just had bronchitis." She continues: "I actually believe that AIDS kind of existed among this group of people first, because if you look back, there was something called junkie pneumonia, there was something called the dwindles that addicts got, and I think this was another early AIDS population way too helpless to ever do anything for themselves on their own behalf."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Julia Epstein writes in her book "Altered Conditions: Disease, Medicine and Storytelling" that: "As we uncover more of the early history of HIV infection, it becomes clear that by at least the 1970s the virus was already making major inroads into the immune systems of a number of diverse populations in the United States (the retrospectively diagnosed epidemic of 'junkie pneumonia' in New York City in the late 1970s for example) and had for some time been causing devastation in several countries in Africa."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Anecdotal evidence suggests that so-called junkie pneumonia first began to afflict heroin addicts in New York in 1977. In her book "EnGendering AIDS: Deconstructing Sex, Text, and Epidemic", Tamsin Wilton writes: "People had been sickening and dying of mysterious conditions since the early 1970s, conditions that we can retrospectively diagnose as AIDS related. There was, for example, a phenomenon known as 'junkie pneumonia' which spread among some populations of injecting street drug users in the 1970s, and which is now believed to have been caused by HIV infection."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Melinda Cooper writes in her book "Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism": "It is plausible that these cases [of AIDS] did not come to light in the 1970s for the same reason that 'junkie pneumonia' was not recognized as the sign of an emerging infectious disease: The people in question had such precarious access to health care that news of their death was never communicated to public health authorities."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: An article by Pattrice Maurer in the newspaper Agenda from April 1992 explores some of the issues surrounding junkie pneumonia. It starts: "In the late 1970s while the epidemic known as 'disco fever' swept through the U.S., an epidemic known as 'junkie pneumonia' raged among injection drug users in New York City." It continues: "Few people were aware that large numbers of injections drug users were inexplicably dying of pneumonia. Those few who did notice these deaths did not feel compelled to investigate the public health puzzle they posed." The author's opinion is that if anyone had bothered to investigate these deaths, they would have found an immune system disorder that is now called AIDS.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Steven Thrasher writes in "The Guardian": "Indeed, those of us who study AIDS have long known that long before common symptoms such as Kaposi sarcoma and pneumonia were showing up among hemophiliacs and gay men, they were likely affecting homeless people who lived off society’s radar, people who used IV (intravenous) drugs and those who avoided medical treatment out of fear."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A chapter in "The Proceedings of the World Conference of Therapeutic Communities" (9th, San Francisco, California, September 1–6, 1985) gives details about serum samples that were tested for signs of HIV (then called HTLV-III/LAV) antibodies. Quoting: "We have also conducted historical studies of the epidemic in New York City, using serum samples that were originally collected for other purposes. We have sera from IV drug users that go back to the middle 1960s. The first indication of HTLV-III/LAV antibody presence is in one of eleven samples from 1978 ... 29% of 40 samples in 1979 ... 44% of samples from 1980 and 52% of samples from 1982. The HTLV-III/LAV virus appears to have been introduced among IV drug users in the late 1970s in New York City."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Anna Thompson writes on the website TheBody.com in an article dated Autumn 1993: "Many women were dying in the late '70s of pneumonia, cervical cancer, and other illnesses complicated by 'mysteriously' suppressed immune systems. Yet, it was not until 1981 that a case of AIDS in a woman was first reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)." She continues: "The CDC's refusal to address women's issues led to the overall perception that women do not get AIDS."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In an article published in "AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism", author Douglas Crimp draws attention to anecdotal evidence about junkie pneumonia. Quoting: "Even these statistics are based on CDC epidemiology that continues to see the beginning of the epidemic as 1981 ... in spite of widespread anecdotal reporting of a high rate of deaths throughout the 1970s from what was known as 'junkie pneumonia' and was likely Pneumocystis pneumonia." The statistics Crimp writes about were taken from a New York Times article from October 1987 about a NYC Department of Health study that showed that 53% of AIDS sufferers were people who injected drugs – more than 150 percent higher than previously reported. Quoting: "City health officials estimated that half of the city's 200,000 intravenous drug users were infected with the virus that causes AIDS".


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The study "HIV-1 Infection Among Intravenous Drug Users in Manhattan, New York City, from 1977 through 1987", published in February 1989, seeks to understand long term trends in the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users (IDUs). AIDS surveillance data and studies which detail the number of persons who tested HIV positive in Manhattan are used to compile information deemed critical to realising the extent of the AIDS epidemic. It starts by stating that up to September 1988, IDU was the risk behaviour in 19,139 (or 26%) of the first 72,223 cases of AIDS in the US. Cases among IDUs in New York City in the same period numbered 6,182 (approximately a third of national IDU cases). The study continues to outline the methodology used in the compilation of data. It says that while truly representative samples of IDUs within a community are probably impossible to obtain, samples of IDUs entering treatment provide a good source for monitoring trends. In the results section it states (quoting): "The first evidence for HIV-1 infection among IV drug users in New York is from three cases of AIDS in children born in 1977. These cases were later reported to the New York City Department of Health AIDS Surveillance Unit. These children did not receive any known transfusions prior to developing AIDS and were born to mothers known to be IV drug users."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: It continues to outline that the earliest known case of AIDS in an adult IDU occurred in 1979 (mixed risk) and that known cases among IDUs increased rapidly from the 8 cases in 1980 (3 mixed risk), to 31 cases in 1981, to 160 cases in 1982, and to 340 cases in 1983. Statistics on the incidence of positive tests for HIV, mainly using archived samples, are: 1 out of 11 in 1978; 13 out of 50 in 1979; 8 out of 21 in 1980; 14 out of 28 between 1981–83; 75 out of 137 and 38 out of 63 in 1984; 36 out of 55 in 1986 and 169 out of 294 in 1987. In the comments section, it states: "The three cases in 1977 of apparent perinatal transmission (mother-to-child) from IV drug-using women strongly suggest that the introduction of HIV-1 into the IV drug-use group occurred around 1975 or 1976, or perhaps even earlier." It says that without extensive samples from this period, it is not possible to be certain about the spread of HIV among IDUs, but the samples from IDUs with chronic liver disease suggest that the rates of infection were below 20% for the first 3 or 4 years after its introduction.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: HIV is thought to have entered the population of people using intravenous drugs in New York City in approximately 1975. In Spring 1975, the government of New York City underwent a fiscal crisis which led to the closing of many social services, with people who used intravenous drugs living in a hostile sociopolitical and legal environment. This fiscal crisis led to many agencies with health responsibilities being particularly hard hit, which in turn might have led to an increase in HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB). Quoting from a 2006 American Journal of Public Health study: "Between 1974 and 1977, the Department of Health (DOH) budget (in NY) was cut by 20%, and by 1977 the department had lost 1700 staff members – 28% of its 1974 workforce. To achieve these reductions, the department closed 7 of 20 district health centers, cut $1 million from its methadone program, terminated the employment of 14 of 19 health educators, and closed 20 of 75 child health stations and 6 of 14 chest clinics (the units responsible for TB screening and diagnosis)."


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A study published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 1986 linked TB and HIV/AIDS: "Severe and unusual presentation of overwhelming tuberculosis in appropriate clinical circumstances may be considered an infection predictive of the presence of AIDS." Further, a study from 1987 stated there was a link between the rise in TB, AIDS and drug users within the United States: "AIDS thus compounds the risk of acquiring tuberculosis, and in the United States most patients with AIDS and tuberculosis have been drug users." A newsletter from Spring 1987 by the National Coalition Of Gay STD Services featured an article titled "Tuberculosis and AIDS - Connecticut" that suggested an association between TB and AIDS within that state.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5, 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report" newsletter reported unusual clusters of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) caused by a form of "Pneumocystis carinii" (now recognized as a distinct species, "Pneumocystis jirovecii") in five homosexual men in Los Angeles. Over the next 18 months, more PCP clusters were discovered among otherwise healthy men in cities throughout the country, along with other opportunistic diseases (such as Kaposi's sarcoma and persistent, generalized lymphadenopathy), common in immunosuppressed patients.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In June 1982, a report of a group of cases amongst gay men in Southern California suggested that a sexually transmitted infectious agent might be the etiological agent. The syndrome was initially termed "GRID", or "gay-related immune deficiency"; other less common gay-specific terms included "gay compromise syndrome", "gay lymph node syndrome", "gay cancer", "gay plague", "homosexual syndrome", "community-acquired immunodeficiency" ("CAID") and "acquired community immunodeficiency syndrome" ("ACIDS"). Health authorities soon realized, however, that nearly half of the people identified with the syndrome were not homosexual men. The same opportunistic infections were also reported among hemophiliacs, users of intravenous drugs such as heroin, and Haitian immigrants—leading some researchers to call it the "4H" disease. By August 1982, the disease was being referred to by its new CDC-coined name: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In New York City, Nathan Fain, Larry Kramer, Larry Mass, Paul Popham, Paul Rapoport, and Edmund White officially established the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in 1982.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Also in 1982, Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz published "." In this short work, they described ways gay men could be sexual and affectionate while dramatically reducing the risk of contracting or spreading HIV. Both authors were themselves gay men living with AIDS. This booklet was one of the first times men were advised to use condoms when having sexual relations with other men.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, there was very little information about the disease. Because AIDS affected stigmatized groups, such as LGBTQ people, people of low socioeconomic status, sex workers and addicts, there was also initially little mass media coverage when the epidemic started. However, with the rise of activist groups composed of people suffering from AIDS, either directly or through a loved one, more public attention was brought to the epidemic.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In May 1983, a team of doctors at the Pasteur Institute in France including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier reported that they had isolated a new retrovirus from lymphoid ganglions that they believed was the cause of AIDS. The virus was later named lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) and a sample was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which was later passed to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In May 1984 a team led by Robert Gallo of the United States confirmed the discovery of the virus, but they renamed it human T lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III).


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Dr. Jay Levy's group at the University of California, San Francisco also played a role in the discovery of HIV. He independently isolated the AIDS virus in 1983 and named it the AIDS-associated Retrovirus (ARV), publishing his findings in the journal Science in 1984.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In January 1985, a number of more-detailed reports were published concerning LAV and HTLV-III, and by March it was clear that the viruses were the same—indeed, it was later determined that the virus isolated by the Gallo lab was from the lymph nodes of the patient studied in the original 1983 report by Montagnier—and was the etiological agent of AIDS.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In May 1986, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses ruled that both names should be dropped and a new name, HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), be used.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Whether Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier deserve more credit than Gallo for the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS has been a matter of considerable controversy. Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their "discovery of human immunodeficiency virus", and Harald zur Hausen also shared the prize for his discovery that human papilloma virus leads to cervical cancer, but Gallo was left out. Gallo said that it was "a disappointment" that he was not named a co-recipient. Montagnier said he was "surprised" Gallo was not recognized by the Nobel Committee: "It was important to prove that HIV was the cause of AIDS, and Gallo had a very important role in that. I'm very sorry for Robert Gallo." Dr Levy's contribution to the discovery of HIV was also cited in the Nobel Prize ceremony.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Since June 5, 1981, many definitions have been developed for epidemiological surveillance such as the Bangui definition and the 1994 expanded World Health Organization AIDS case definition.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, a team led by Robert Shafer at Stanford University School of Medicine discovered that the gray mouse lemur has an endogenous lentivirus (the genus to which HIV belongs) in its genetic makeup. This suggests that lentiviruses have existed for at least 14 million years, much longer than the currently known existence of HIV. In addition, the time frame falls in the period when Madagascar was still connected to what is now the African continent; the said lemurs later developed immunity to the virus strain and survived an era when the lentivirus was widespread among other mammals. The study was hailed as crucial, as it fills the blanks in the origin of the virus, as well as in its evolution, and could be important in the development of new antiviral drugs.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: In 2010, researchers reported that SIV had infected monkeys in Bioko for at least 32,000 years. Previous to this time, it was thought that SIV infection in monkeys had happened over the past few hundred years. Scientists estimated that it would take a similar amount of time before humans adapted naturally to HIV infection in the way monkeys in Africa have adapted to SIV and not suffer any harm from the infection.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: A 2016 Czech study of the genome of Malayan flying lemurs, an order of mammals parallel to primates and sharing an immediate common ancestor with them, found endogenous lentiviruses that emerged an estimated 40–60 million years ago based on rates of viral mutation versus modern lentiviruses.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: AIDS denialists argue that AIDS does not exist or that AIDS is not caused by HIV; some of its proponents believe that AIDS is caused by lifestyle, including sexuality or drug use, and not by HIV. Both forms of AIDS denialism contradict scientific consensus. The evidence that HIV causes AIDS is generally considered conclusive among pathologists. Most arguments for denialism are based on misrepresentations of outdated data. The belief that HIV was created by the US government as a bioweapon, an idea invented by a Soviet propaganda operation, is held by a disproportionately high number of Africans and African-Americans.


title: History of HIV/AIDS

text: Conspiracy theorists' influence reached a peak in 2021 with Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro claiming that COVID vaccines can lead to AIDS. The Supreme Federal Court of Brazil ordered an investigation into Bolsonaro for falsely claiming that COVID vaccines could increase the risk of contracting AIDS.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X (; stylized as MONSTA X) is a South Korean boy group formed through the reality survival program "No.Mercy" under Starship Entertainment. The group is currently composed of six members: Shownu, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Joohoney and I.M, with former member Wonho having left the group in October 2019.


title: Monsta X

text: The group debuted on May 14, 2015 with their first EP "Trespass". In March 2017, Monsta X released their first studio album and the final part of "The Clan" series "". Since 2018, the group had four Japanese singles certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, and since 2019, eight of their Korean albums and extended plays had been certified platinum by the Korea Music Content Association. In 2020, the group's first English album "All About Luv", ranked number five on the US "Billboard" 200 and number seven on the US "Rolling Stone" Top 200.


title: Monsta X

text: Since debut, they had been known for their aggressive style, combining elements of hip hop, EDM and pop. This aggressive style with "tracks centred around loud, clattering, electronic instrumentals, vicious rap verses, and striking vocals" had also been influential across the fourth generation of K-pop, along with breaking gender norms before it was a trend. Additionally, they also obtained the modifier of "Next Generation Beast Idol".


title: Monsta X

text: The group was formed, as the result of the survival program called "No.Mercy", which was launched by Starship Entertainment and Mnet in December 2014. Through the course of ten episodes, twelve trainees (thirteen after I.M joined the competition on episode 8) competed against each other through various performances and were ranked from one to twelve, with one being the best and twelve being the worst. They also have to wear a nametag with their ranking, which changed following the challenges and performances set by the judges. For the show, the participants worked directly with artists from Starship Entertainment, including Hyolyn, K.Will, Mad Clown, and Soyou, as well as other artists, such as Rhymer, San E, Giriboy, and Genius Nochang. These artists also served as judges for ranking the contestants. For the concluding mission, the nine remaining members formed into three groups of three to compete and the members of Monsta X were selected from these nine in the final episode as the seven members of the group: Shownu, Wonho, Minhyuk, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Jooheon, and I.M.


title: Monsta X

text: "No.Mercy" also led to the 2014 spin-off web series "Deokspatch", which also began airing in December, which was meant to showcase a more casual and lighthearted side to the competition in order for people to get to know the trainees better. It also continued as "Deokspatch X" on May 14, 2015 and as "Deokspatch X²" on October 2, 2015. These seasons focused on the newly formed Monsta X participating in variety show activities.


title: Monsta X

text: The group's name "Monsta X" contains the double meaning of "Monsters conquering the K-pop scene" and "My star" (Mon means "My" in French), then X symbolizes an unknown existence. Their fandom name "Monbebe" is also French for "my baby". Jooheon, Hyungwon, and I.M also released their song "Interstellar", which was produced for the final mission by Yella Diamond on February 12, 2015.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X made their debut with the release of their first extended play "Trespass" on May 14, 2015. "Trespass" is produced by Rhymer and described as a "strong and edgy track that reflects Monsta X’s unique character". "Trespass" includes seven different tracks. Jooheon was the most involved member in the production of the mini-album and composed several songs, including "One Love", "Steal Your Heart", and "Blue Moon". I.M was also involved in the rap making of several songs. Kihyun and Wonho contributed song lyrics for the EP.


title: Monsta X

text: On September 1, the group returned with their second extended play titled "Rush". The title track of the same name is described as a song that represents their signature style, that produced by Giriboy. Keone Madrid choreographed the dance and Joo Hee-sun directed the music video. The mini-album contains six tracks produced by Mad Clown, Crybaby and Rhymer. Jooheon also took part in making the rap for five out of the six tracks, while fellow member I.M was involved in four songs, including the title track "Rush". In 2015, they made their first U.S. appearance performing at KCON 2015 in Los Angeles. They also received the "Next Generation Asian Artist" award at 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards and the "1theK Performance Award" at 2015 Melon Music Awards.


title: Monsta X

text: In January, the group released a new variety program titled "Monsta X Right Now!". They also appeared in the Chinese web drama "Good Evening, Teacher", receiving positive responses from local viewers.


title: Monsta X

text: In April, the group participated on a Chinese survival program called "Heroes of Remix", which was aired in June on Jiangsu Television. The show holds a remix competition in the program and each one of the participants receive a lesson from its assigned mentor and perform its stage by remixing representative Chinese music.


title: Monsta X

text: On May 9, the group pre-released the song "Ex Girl" featuring Wheein of Mamamoo. On May 18, Monsta X's third extended play "The Clan Pt. 1 Lost" with the lead single "All In" was released. The music video was directed by filmmaker Shin Dong-keul, a former winner at the Canada International Film Festival who is known for his dreamy and euphoric style in producing music videos. The EP debuted at number five on "Billboard" World Albums chart and stayed for two consecutive weeks on it. It is also the first part of "The Clan" series.


title: Monsta X

text: In July, Monsta X held their first solo concert The First Live "X-Clan Origins" from July 16 to July 17, which sold out in five minutes.


title: Monsta X

text: In August, Starship Entertainment formed a project group with Monsta X and their label-mates Cosmic Girls as part of a promotional project with KT. As part of the project group, they released the single "Do Better", with an accompanying music video.


title: Monsta X

text: On October 4, Monsta X released their fourth extended play and second part of "The Clan" series titled "The Clan Pt. 2 Guilty" alongside the title track "Fighter".


title: Monsta X

text: In December, the group was awarded the "Best of Next Male Artist" award at 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards.


title: Monsta X

text: In March, they released their first studio album and the final part of "The Clan" series titled "" with the title track "Beautiful". The album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" World Albums chart and at number ten on the "Billboard" Heatseekers Albums chart, while the title track "Beautiful" debuted and peaked at number four on the "Billboard" World Digital Song Sales chart.


title: Monsta X

text: On May 17, Monsta X made their debut in Japan under Universal Music's new label Mercury Records Tokyo with their first Japanese single album, which included Japanese versions of "Hero" and "Stuck". "Hero" reached number two on the weekly Oricon Singles Chart, number one on the Tower Records chart, and number three on the weekly "Billboard Japan" Hot 100 chart, making an impressive debut from a foreign artist.


title: Monsta X

text: On June 19, Monsta X released a repackaged version of "The Clan Pt. 2.5: The Final Chapter" called "", which features the original songs from the album and two extra songs "Shine Forever" and "Gravity", as well as the music video for "Shine Forever". The title song "Shine Forever" combines future bass and hip-hop styles and includes rap lyrics written by members Jooheon and I.M. The group also began their first world tour Beautiful in June.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X aired the second season of "Monsta X-Ray" in July. Monsta X also released a summer song "Newton" on July 27. The music video for the song was produced by Yoo Sung-kyun of SunnyVisual.


title: Monsta X

text: On August 23, their second Japanese single "Beautiful" was released. The single album contains the Japanese versions of "Beautiful" and "Ready or Not". It reached number one on Oricon's daily chart.


title: Monsta X

text: On November 7, their fifth extended play titled "The Code" with title track "Dramarama" was released. On the day of the mini-album release, they held a comeback show at Jangchung Arena. Following this, on November 14, they won their first music broadcast award through SBS MTV's "The Show" with "Dramarama".


title: Monsta X

text: On December 18, the group released the special single "Lonely Christmas" as a surprise holiday release for their fans. It was written, produced, and co-composed by Jooheon.


title: Monsta X

text: On January 13, they served as torchbearers on the first day of the Seoul leg of the Olympic torch relay in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. On January 31, they released their third Japanese single album, which included their first original Japanese track "Spotlight" and a Japanese version of their previously released Korean track "Shine Forever". They had previously performed this song in Monsta X Christmas Party 2017. They also opened a collaboration cafe for a limited time from January 19 to February 18 at Shinjuku Box.


title: Monsta X

text: In February, the group announced their second world tour The Connect, with the first show held in Seoul at Jang Chung Arena on May 26 and 27.


title: Monsta X

text: On March 26, the group officially released their sixth mini-album "", containing seven tracks with the lead title track "Jealousy", produced by Hayden Bell, Shane Simmons, and Harry Sommerdahland, and the songs "If Only", co-written by Wonho, and "Special", co-written by Jooheon. In this comeback, they won another music broadcast award through SBS MTV's "The Show".


title: Monsta X

text: On April 25, they released their first Japanese studio album "Piece" with the lead title track "Puzzle", including the songs from their previous Japanese single albums and another four additional songs. "Piece" reached number one on Tower Records' chart all store, number three on the weekly Oricon Albums Chart and "Billboard Japan" Hot Albums chart. On April 27, they started their first Japan tour in Nagoya.


title: Monsta X

text: On August 1, Monsta X released a music video for their Japanese comeback "Livin' It Up", while the single album was released on September 12.


title: Monsta X

text: On October 22, Monsta X released part one of their second studio album "Take.1 Are You There?", with the title track "Shoot Out". On November 9, the group released an English version of "Shoot Out".


title: Monsta X

text: On January 20, the group released the second part of their second studio album "Take.2 We Are Here" along with its lead single "Alligator".


title: Monsta X

text: In March, Monsta X collaborated with music producer Steve Aoki for the track "Play It Cool" and its English version.


title: Monsta X

text: In April, their agency Starship Entertainment, announced their third world tour We Are Here with twelve countries and eighteen cities, making it their largest to date.


title: Monsta X

text: On May 28, Monsta X signed with Epic Records for their English language recordings and distribution outside South Korea. On June 14, Monsta X released a new English single titled "Who Do U Love?" featuring French Montana. On September 20, they released another English single titled "Love U" and "Who Do U Love?" remix version by will.i.am.


title: Monsta X

text: On October 4, Monsta X released another English single titled "Someone's Someone" co-written by Before You Exit members and Monsta X's Shownu. On October 28, the group released their seventh EP "" containing eight tracks with the lead singles "Find You" and "Follow".


title: Monsta X

text: On October 31, Starship Entertainment publicly declared that member Wonho would be departing following recent allegations of drug use and owed money, and that the company intends to "hold legal liability" for "malicious and distorted claims" about him. The fans expressed their disapproval and requested of Starship Entertainment that he be reinstated in the group. He was subsequently cleared of drug charges in March 2020 and was signed with a subsidiary of Starship Entertainment to pursue a solo career.


title: Monsta X

text: On December 4, the group performed at the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards at the Nagoya Dome in Japan. On December 19, they released "Magnetic", a collaboration with the Colombian singer Sebastián Yatra, with Yatra singing in Spanish, and Monsta X singing in English and Spanish. They also attended and performed at the "MDL Beast Festival" in Saudi Arabia, performing thirteen songs including performing "Play It Cool" alongside Steve Aoki.


title: Monsta X

text: On January 11, Joohoney announced that he would take a break from the group to focus on his mental health.


title: Monsta X

text: On February 14, Monsta X released their sixth studio album and first all-English album "All About Luv". It debuted and peaked at number five on the US "Billboard" 200 and at number seven on the US "Rolling Stone" Top 200.


title: Monsta X

text: On March 30, they released their seventh Japanese single "Wish on the Same Sky", ahead of the physical release of the single album of the same name on April 15. Upon release, it ranked number one on the weekly Tower Records chart and number seven on the weekly "Billboard Japan" Hot 100 chart. It also ranked number one overall for the first half of 2020 on the Tower Records chart.


title: Monsta X

text: In April, Monsta X appeared on "MTV Unplugged at Home", performing "Beside U" and "You Can't Hold My Heart".


title: Monsta X

text: On May 26, the group released their eighth EP "Fantasia X", with the lead single "Fantasia". Prior to this comeback, Joohoney had already rejoined promotions with them and thus, they were a six-member group for the promotion of "Fantasia".


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X had announced their fourth world tour, but it was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to perform at in-person concerts, the group participated in a live-streamed KCON event "K:CONTACT 2020". They also announced that they would hold a live-streamed concert Live From Seoul With Luv. It was initially scheduled for July 25, but then rescheduled to August 8, to allow Shownu to recover from the unexpected surgery he had undergone. They held their concert through the music streaming platform LiveXLive and performed several songs from their English-language album "All About Luv", as well as several from their most recent Korean EP "Fantasia X" and several older title tracks.


title: Monsta X

text: On November 2, Monsta X released their third studio album "Fatal Love", with the lead single "Love Killa". On November 21, they released "How We Do" as an OST for the animated movie "", alongside Snoop Dogg.


title: Monsta X

text: On December 16, Monsta X released their eighth Japanese single album, which included the Japanese versions of their title tracks "Love Killa" and "Fantasia".


title: Monsta X

text: In January, the group was also announced to be one of the artists featuring on NCSoft's new platform Universe, beginning with an original series called "Area 51: The Code".


title: Monsta X

text: They also released a new Japanese single album on March 10, with the lead single "Wanted" and another original Japanese track "Neo Universe". "Wanted" was pre-released ahead of the physical album release on February 10, and the music video was released on February 13. Following the release of "Wanted", they announced the release of their third Japanese studio album "Flavors of Love", released on May 5, which includes their Japanese singles released since 2020, as well as five new Japanese tracks.


title: Monsta X

text: In May, they announced the release of their ninth EP "One of a Kind" and its lead single "Gambler", set for June 1. Starship Entertainment also announced that Shownu will take a hiatus from the group and will not participate in the group's upcoming promotional activities due to resurfacing issues of retinal detachment.


title: Monsta X

text: On June 15, Monsta X's American manager Eshy Gazit announced the launch of a new label venture Intertwine in partnership with BMG. The label's first two artists were Monsta X and Wonho. The venture also finalized a separate distribution deal, in partnership with Starship Entertainment, for Monsta X's two upcoming Korean releases, as well as confirming their second English-language album in 2021.


title: Monsta X

text: Shownu enlisted for his mandatory military service on July 22. He will serve as public service worker due to previous surgery for left eye retinal detachment.


title: Monsta X

text: On July 26, Monsta X released the promotional single "Kiss or Death" through Universe Music for the mobile application Universe.


title: Monsta X

text: On November 19, the group released their tenth EP "No Limit" with the lead single "Rush Hour". It was the group's first release to not feature Shownu since his enlistment.


title: Monsta X

text: On December 10, Monsta X released their second English-language album "The Dreaming", which includes their previously released single "One Day" and nine new tracks. They released a documentary film/concert film "" on December 8 in South Korea, and on December 9 and 11 in seventy countries worldwide. It contains interviews with the members, clips from their U.S. activities, special stages, and footage of the group's six-year journey.


title: Monsta X

text: On March 23, Monsta X announced their eleventh EP "Shape of Love", with the lead single "Love", to be released on April 11. However, the group members had tested positive for COVID-19, and as a result, their comeback was postponed until April 26.


title: Monsta X

text: Their U.S. tour, previously postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was rescheduled for May and June with stops in nine cities. The group also appeared in the KCON event KCON 2022 Premiere.


title: Monsta X

text: On May 9, Starship Entertainment announced that members Shownu, Kihyun, and Hyungwon had already decided to renew their contracts, while members Minhyuk, Joohoney, and I.M had discussed renewing their contracts. On August 8, Starship Entertainment released a statement announcing that all the members, except I.M, renewed their contracts. He decided not to renew his contract with the agency but will still continue to participate in the group's future plans.


title: Monsta X

text: On July 7, Monsta X released the promotional single "If with U" through Universe Music for the mobile application Universe. On July 21, they also released a new single titled "Late Night Feels" in collaboration with famous Dutch DJ Sam Feldt.


title: Monsta X

text: On August 12, Starship Entertainment announced that Monsta X will hold the No Limit Tour in Seoul for three days on September 2 to 4, continuing the heat of their U.S. tour.


title: Monsta X

text: On September 24, the group performed in the LALAPA K-CONCERT, held at Union Hall in Bangkok, Thailand.


title: Monsta X

text: On October 7, they participated in the 2022 Korean Culture Festival, held at Seoul Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.


title: Monsta X

text: On October 22, Monsta X was supposed to headline Nickelodeon's NickFest: The Messiest Music Festival Ever, to be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, but it was cancelled due to "current market conditions". They were supposed to headline the new mega concert KAMP LA 2022, a joint production from KAMP Global with the partnership brand Eventim Live Asia, on October 16 at the same location, but their appearance, alongside several other artists, was cancelled due to "visa issues".


title: Monsta X

text: On December 11, the group announced their comeback, with the release of the image for their twelfth EP "Reason", which will be released on January 9, 2023.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X is known for having a unique style, often described as intense or aggressive, combining the elements of hip hop, EDM, and pop. Philip Merrill described their sound for the "Grammy"'s news publication as distinct in the K-pop scene with Monsta X "adding their Korean eclectic backgrounds to a meld between American rap, rock, and pop, they bring a throbbing rhythmic bounce, lyrics hard enough to slide in raps at will, melodies pop enough to hold you, all with a rock edge as the greater context". The group's aggressive style with "tracks centred around loud, clattering, electronic instrumentals, vicious rap verses and striking vocals" had been influential across the fourth generation of K-pop.


title: Monsta X

text: While the group is often known for their intense style, their albums frequently are "a mix between intense songs and softer ballads". Michael Cerio of "Radio.com" described their EP "" as "a balance of ballads and bangers". Tamar Herman of "Billboard" described their first English-language studio album "All About Luv" as "a divergence from their boisterous dance-oriented album they typically release in the South Korean music market", focusing on "an overwhelming sense of sentimentality and smoothness", while it was also said to have proven that "K-pop transcends language barriers".


title: Monsta X

text: Early in their career, Monsta X cited Big Bang as the artist that influences and inspires them. The group also cited various international artists as their musical influences, including Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, and Bruno Mars.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X showed how diverse their concepts were, starting from their "LGBT"-themed concept of "The Clan" series, which is all about youth growth. "L-ost" depicts the loss and pain of youth, containing young people who live with pain in their hearts and having tragic ending through loss, "G-uilty" contains the story of protecting their innocence against the world that has caused them loss and pain, and "" portrays youth's rebellion, released in "T-rilogy".


title: Monsta X

text: The group also showed how they expanded their worldview, through the release of "Take.1 Are You There?", as they explore the seven deadly sins concept. It was conceptualized as battle of "Light and Dark", "Good and Evil", "Life and Death", and everything on the border, searching salvation. It continued through the release of "Take.2 We Are Here", with the theme of finding hope in the midst of loss and wandering, while finding salvation in the process.


title: Monsta X

text: As they were inspired to go in a new direction to show the many sides to love, Monsta X came back with a villain-inspired concept, referencing different well-known characters from the movies, such as "", "American Psycho", "The Silence of the Lambs", "Fight Club", "Joker", and "Drive", upon the release of "Fatal Love". Experimenting with their boldest concept yet: temptation, the group wanted to explore the darker side of romance, showing it as both cruel and beautiful.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X had been breaking gender norms before it was a trend. Taylor Glasby of "GQ" stated that their "smokey eye make-up, embellished jackets, chokers, and leather trousers, with bondage-style leather harnesses under double-breasted suits", made it "sensual, provocative, and divisive but Monsta X have developed a proud ownership of this duality". Natalie Morin described the group's armor for "Refinery29" as "usually some mixture of blacks, golds, and reds, leather, and dramatic, smokey makeup, with an aura around them that mere mortals dare not disturb", accenting that the group "fit closely in many ways to what Koreans would describe as the "beast" idol aesthetic – dark, edgy, traditionally "masculine" presenting – as opposed to the softer, cute "flower boy" aesthetic also found among many male K-pop groups".


title: Monsta X

text: The group was also commended for using traditional Korean inspired elements during their performances, including hanbok-inspired outfits and the use of the taepyeongso. Their modernized take on the men's hanbok, in black and gold prints flowing past their waists like a cape, with fitted pants of mostly gold designs, and the use of the Korean drums, was also highlighted. Kim Ri-eul, a hanbok designer who created hanbok fashion for Monsta X, also hope that the beauty of traditional hanbok will become more widely known through the Korean wave.


title: Monsta X

text: When 20th and 21st century singers who have something in common were introduced, from music to stage costumes, concepts, and tones, a parallel theory of two singers, so-called "doppel singers", was made. Monsta X is said to be the singers that continues the myth of the "Original Beast Idol" Shinhwa and had obtained the modifier of "Next Generation Beast Idol".


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X is also called the "Global K-pop Group", recognized as one of the artists that contributed and extended the Korean wave globally. In 2018, they performed for the yearly iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball Tour, making them the first Korean group to perform at iHeartRadio's annual event, as well as in 2019, and in 2021. The group was also rendered by Cartoon Network in an episode of the animated series "We Bare Bears", making them the first-ever guest stars in an American animated series. They were personally invited by the South Korean President Moon Jae-in to perform for King Harald V of Norway for the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Norway. Monsta X became the first K-pop artist to appear on a live broadcast of the morning news program "Good Morning Britain" of the British ITV channel. They were also the first Korean singers to appear and perform on the popular U.S. TV show "The Kelly Clarkson Show". They also appeared and performed at the "Time" 100 Talks, where they also voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as drawing attention to the work of medical professionals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The group was also dubbed by the Korean media as "Korea's Representative Group" and "K-pop Emerging Power" because of their remarkable achievements abroad.


title: Monsta X

text: Hailed as the "K-pop Monster" for their exemplary stages and performances, Monsta X proved their local popularity and as a bar that newly proves its qualifications as a global musician by becoming the first Korean group to perform at 2019 Teen Choice Awards. The group also proved their local popularity by predicting live broadcasts of performance held at the Staples Center, where world-class stars took the stage, becoming the twelfth Asian artists in history to gross over $1,000,000 in one show in North America.


title: Monsta X

text: In 2019, an official statement from Kakao M revealed that Monsta X received 7,906 shares (about ,000,000,000) of it to resolve issue rights to strengthen solidarity with affiliates and entertainers. They are one of many Kakao M-affiliated artists who received stocks from the company, of which, according to reports, is also preparing to rejoin Korea Exchange through a re-IPO.


title: Monsta X

text: In 2022, the American online publication "Teen Vogue" included Monsta X on their "Best Boy Bands of All Time", citing them as "K-pop Icons", and consider them as one of the most popular K-pop groups (and most popular boy bands) around the world.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X had influenced numerous artists, including DKZ, DKB, Cravity, WEi, Ciipher, Trendz, and TAN, as well as Kingdom's Dann and Mujin.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X had won numerous awards, both in South Korea and internationally. They earned their first-ever weekly music program win on November 14, 2017 with their single "Dramarama" on "The Show", while their first-ever weekly public broadcast music program win on November 2, 2018 with their single "Shoot Out" on "Music Bank". The group also achieved a career high for number of music program wins, a total of five trophies, with their single "Rush Hour".


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X won sixteen Bonsang (main prize) and one Daesang (grand prize) awards from various year-end award shows. They also won the "Represent Song of the Year" at the APAN Music Awards in 2020.


title: Monsta X

text: In 2019, Monsta X received a Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Commendation at the Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards for their contribution to the development of South Korea's contemporary pop culture and arts.


title: Monsta X

text: Monsta X landed a spot on "Billboard"s Social 50 of the 2010s, which ranked the most active musical artists on the world's leading social networking services in a decade.


title: Monsta X

text: In December 2015, Monsta X was appointed as the seventh promotional ambassadors for the Girl Scouts Korea, and will participate in various activities, such as various events and newsletters of the Korea Girl Scouts Federation.


title: Monsta X

text: In May 2017, the group had been appointed as the ambassadors for Gyeonggi Youth Phone 1388, a customized counseling service that allows anyone, including teenagers, parents, and teachers, to consult on youth issues 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through the phone and the internet, will engage in the activities, such as shooting posters and appearing in videos to promote Youth Call 1388 for the next one year.


title: Monsta X

text: In May 2018, Monsta X attended the largest urban cultural festival C-Festival 2018 as their official ambassadors for its promotion, held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of Thailand (Embassy of the Republic of Korea), Gangnam-gu, Korea International Trade Association, and COEX MICE Cluster Committee, hosted by COEX and WTC Seoul.