|Human immunodeficiency virus|
Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1 (in green) budding from cultured lymphocyte. Multiple round bumps on cell surface represent sites of assembly and budding of virions.
|International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Codes Classification and external resources|
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Previous names for the virus include human T-lymphotropic virus-III (HTLV-III), lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV), and AIDS-associated retrovirus (ARV).
Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells. The four major routes of transmission are unprotected sexual intercourse, contaminated needles, breast milk, and transmission from an infected mother to her baby at birth (Vertical transmission). Screening of blood products for HIV has largely eliminated transmission through blood transfusions or infected blood products in the developed world.
HIV infection in humans is now pandemic. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981. It is estimated that about 0.6 percent of the world's population is infected with HIV. In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.4–3.3 million lives, of which more than 570,000 were children. A third of these deaths are occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth and increasing poverty. According to current estimates, HIV is set to infect 90 million people in Africa, resulting in a minimum estimate of 18 million orphans. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries.
HIV primarily infects vital cells in the human immune system such as helper T cells (specifically CD4+ T cells), macrophages, and dendritic cells. HIV infection leads to low levels of CD4+ T cells through three main mechanisms: firstly, direct viral killing of infected cells; secondly, increased rates of apoptosis in infected cells; and thirdly, killing of infected CD4+ T cells by CD8 cytotoxic lymphocytes that recognize infected cells. When CD4+ T cell numbers decline below a critical level, cell-mediated immunity is lost, and the body becomes progressively more susceptible to opportunistic infections.
Eventually most HIV-infected individuals develop AIDS. These individuals mostly die from opportunistic infections or malignancies associated with the progressive failure of the immune system. Without treatment, about 9 out of every 10 persons with HIV will progress to AIDS after 10–15 years. Many progress much sooner. Treatment with anti-retrovirals increases the life expectancy of people infected with HIV. Even after HIV has progressed to diagnosable AIDS, the average survival time with antiretroviral therapy (as of 2005) is estimated to be more than 5 years. Without antiretroviral therapy, death normally occurs within a year. It is hoped that current and future treatments may allow HIV-infected individuals to achieve a life expectancy approaching that of the general public.
HIV is a member of the genus Lentivirus, part of the family of Retroviridae. Lentiviruses have many common morphologies and biological properties. Many species are infected by lentiviruses, which are characteristically responsible for long-duration illnesses with a long incubation period. Lentiviruses are transmitted as single-stranded, positive-sense, enveloped RNA viruses. Upon entry of the target cell, the viral RNA genome is converted to double-stranded DNA by a virally encoded reverse transcriptase that is present in the virus particle. This viral DNA is then integrated into the cellular DNA by a virally encoded integrase, along with host cellular co-factors, so that the genome can be transcribed. After the virus has infected the cell, two pathways are possible: either the virus becomes latent and the infected cell continues to function, or the virus becomes active and replicates, and a large number of virus particles are liberated that can then infect other cells.
There are two strains of HIV known to exist: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the virus that was initially discovered and termed LAV. It is more virulent, relatively easily transmitted, and is the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. HIV-2 is less transmittable and is largely confined to West Africa.
|HIV-2||Lower||Low||West Africa||Sooty Mangabey|
HIV is thought to have originated in non-human primates in sub-Saharan Africa and transferred to humans early in the 20th century. The first paper recognizing a pattern of opportunistic infections was published on 4 June 1981.
Two species of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. Both species of the virus are believed to have originated in West-Central Africa and jumped species (zoonosis) from a non-human primate to humans. HIV-1 is thought to have originated in southern Cameroon after jumping from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) to humans during the twentieth century. It evolved from a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIVcpz) HIV-2, on the other hand, may have originated from the Sooty Mangabey (Cercocebus atys), an Old World monkey of Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, and Cameroon.
New World Monkeys are an interesting exception to the transmission of HIV. Their immunity is believed to be caused by retrotransposition of the Cyclophilin gene into an intron of TRIM5. The result is fusion gene that provides the owl monkey with resistance to HIV-1 infection.
- See History of known cases and spread for early cases of HIV / AIDS
Controversy surrounding the discovery of HIV was intense after French scientist Luc Montagnier and American researcher Robert Gallo both claimed to have discovered it, in 1983 and 1984 respectively. In 1987 the dispute was initially settled on a political level with both teams receiving equal credit. In 1991 a study confirmed that the samples in Gallo's laboratory had in fact originated in Montagnier's. In 1994 the U.S. government conceded that the French should receive the lion's share of the credit.
The Karolinska Institute awarded half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Montagnier and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 'for their discovery of "human immunodeficiency virus"'. The other half went to Harald zur Hausen for unrelated work on Human Papilloma Virus. Gallo was reported to have said that it was "a disappointment" not to have been included, but that all three of the award's recipients deserved the honor. The Karolinska Institute's press release stated "Soon after the discovery of the virus, several groups contributed to the definitive demonstration of HIV as the cause of acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)."
|Exposure Route||Estimated infections per 10,000 exposures to an infected source|
|Needle-sharing injection drug use||67|
|Percutaneous needle stick||30|
|Receptive anal intercourse*||50|
|Insertive anal intercourse*||6.5|
|Receptive penile-vaginal intercourse*||10|
|Insertive penile-vaginal intercourse*||5|
|Receptive oral intercourse*§||1|
|Insertive oral intercourse*§||0.5|
|* assuming no condom use § source refers to oral intercourse performed on a man|
Three main transmission routes for HIV have been identified. HIV-2 is transmitted much less frequently by the mother-to-child and sexual route than HIV-1.
The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations. Sexual transmission can occur when infected sexual secretions of one partner come into contact with the genital, oral, or rectal mucous membranes of another. In high-income countries, the risk of female-to-male transmission is 0.04% per act and male-to-female transmission is 0.08% per act. For various reasons, these rates are 4 to 10 times higher in low-income countries.
The correct and consistent use of latex condoms reduces the risk of sexual transmission of HIV by about 85%. However, spermicide may actually increase the male to female transmission rate due to inflammation of the vagina.
A meta-analysis of 27 observational studies conducted prior to 1999 in sub-Saharan Africa indicated that male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection. However, a subsequent review indicated that the correlation between circumcision and HIV in these observational studies may have been due to confounding factors. Later trials, in which uncircumcised men were randomly assigned to be medically circumcised in sterile conditions and given counseling and other men were not circumcised, have been conducted in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda showing reductions in HIV transmission for heterosexual sex of 60 percent, 53 percent, and 51 percent respectively. As a result, a panel of experts convened by WHO and the UNAIDS Secretariat has "recommended that male circumcision now be recognized as an additional important intervention to reduce the risk of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in men." Research is clarifying whether there is a historical relationship between rates of male circumcision and rates of HIV in differing social and cultural contexts.
On the other hand, some South African medical experts have expressed concern that the repeated use of unsterilized blades in the traditional circumcision of adolescent boys may actually be spreading HIV.
Bugchasing and giftgiving is the active pursuit to contract and transmit HIV, respectively.
Blood or blood product
In general if infected blood comes into contact with any open wound, HIV may be transmitted. This transmission route can account for infections in intravenous drug users, hemophiliacs and recipients of blood transfusions (though most transfusions are checked for HIV in the developed world) and blood products. It is also of concern for persons receiving medical care in regions where there is prevalent substandard hygiene in the use of injection equipment, such as the reuse of needles in Third World countries. Health care workers such as nurses, laboratory workers, and doctors have also been infected, although this occurs more rarely. People who give and receive tattoos, piercings, and scarification procedures can also be at risk of infection.
Since transmission of HIV by blood became known medical personnel are required to protect themselves from contact with blood by the use of Universal precautions.
The transmission of the virus from the mother to the child can occur in utero (during pregnancy), intrapartum (at childbirth) or via breast feeding. In the absence of treatment, the transmission rate up to birth between the mother and child is around 25 percent. However, where combination antiretroviral drug treatment and Cesarian section are available, this risk can be reduced to as low as one percent.. Postnatal mother-to-child transmission may be largely prevented by complete avoidance of breast feeding; however, this has significant associated morbidity. Exclusive breast feeding and the provision of extended antiretroviral prophylaxis to the infant are also efficacious in avoiding transmission.
HIV has been found at low concentrations in the saliva, tears and urine of infected individuals, but there are no recorded cases of infection by these secretions and the potential risk of transmission is negligible.
Unlike some other viruses, infection with HIV does not provide immunity against additional infections, particularly in the case of more genetically distant viruses. Both inter- and intra-clade multiple infections have been reported, and even associated with more rapid disease progression. Multiple infections are divided into two categories depending on the timing of the acquisition of the second strain. Coinfection refers to two strains that appear to have been acquired at the same time (or too close to distinguish). Reinfection (or superinfection) is infection with a second strain at a measurable time after the first. Both forms of dual infection have been reported for HIV in both acute and chronic infection around the world.
Structure and genome
HIV is different in structure from other retroviruses. It is roughly spherical with a diameter of about 120 nm, around 60 times smaller than a red blood cell, yet large for a virus. It is composed of two copies of positive single-stranded RNA that codes for the virus's nine genes enclosed by a conical capsid composed of 2,000 copies of the viral protein p24. The single-stranded RNA is tightly bound to nucleocapsid proteins, p7 and enzymes needed for the development of the virion such as reverse transcriptase, proteases, ribonuclease and integrase. A matrix composed of the viral protein p17 surrounds the capsid ensuring the integrity of the virion particle. This is, in turn, surrounded by the viral envelope which is composed of two layers of fatty molecules called phospholipids taken from the membrane of a human cell when a newly formed virus particle buds from the cell. Embedded in the viral envelope are proteins from the host cell and about 70 copies of a complex HIV protein that protrudes through the surface of the virus particle. This protein, known as Env, consists of a cap made of three molecules called glycoprotein (gp) 120, and a stem consisting of three gp41 molecules that anchor the structure into the viral envelope. This glycoprotein complex enables the virus to attach to and fuse with target cells to initiate the infectious cycle. Both these surface proteins, especially gp120, have been considered as targets of future treatments or vaccines against HIV.
The RNA genome consists of at least 7 structural landmarks (LTR, TAR, RRE, PE, SLIP, CRS, INS) and nine genes (gag, pol, and env, tat, rev, nef, vif, vpr, vpu, and tev) encoding 19 proteins. Three of these genes, gag, pol, and env, contain information needed to make the structural proteins for new virus particles. For example, env codes for a protein called gp160 that is broken down by a viral enzyme to form gp120 and gp41. The six remaining genes, tat, rev, nef, vif, vpr, and vpu (or vpx in the case of HIV-2), are regulatory genes for proteins that control the ability of HIV to infect cells, produce new copies of virus (replicate), or cause disease. The two Tat proteins (p16 and p14) are transcriptional transactivators for the LTR promoter acting by binding the TAR RNA element. The TAR may also be processed into microRNAs that regulate the apoptosis genes ERCC1 and IER3. The Rev protein (p19) is involved in shuttling RNAs from the nucleus and the cytoplasm by binding to the RRE RNA element. The Vif protein (p23) prevents the action of APOBEC3G (a cell protein which deaminates DNA:RNA hybrids and/or interferes with the Pol protein). The Vpr protein (p14) arrests cell division at G2/M. The Nef protein (p27) downregulates CD4 (the major viral receptor), as well as the MHC class I and class II molecules. Nef also interacts with SH3 domains. The Vpu protein (p16) influences the release of new virus particles from infected cells. The ends of each strand of HIV RNA contain an RNA sequence called the long terminal repeat (LTR). Regions in the LTR act as switches to control production of new viruses and can be triggered by proteins from either HIV or the host cell. The Psi element is involved in viral genome packaging and recognized by Gag and Rev proteins. The SLIP element (TTTTTT) is involved in the frameshift in the Gag-Pol reading frame required to make functional Pol.
The term viral tropism refers to which cell types HIV infects. HIV can infect a variety of immune cells such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages, and microglial cells. HIV-1 entry to macrophages and CD4+ T cells is mediated through interaction of the virion envelope glycoproteins (gp120) with the CD4 molecule on the target cells and also with chemokine coreceptors.
Macrophage (M-tropic) strains of HIV-1, or non-syncitia-inducing strains (NSI) use the β-chemokine receptor CCR5 for entry and are thus able to replicate in macrophages and CD4+ T cells. This CCR5 coreceptor is used by almost all primary HIV-1 isolates regardless of viral genetic subtype. Indeed, macrophages play a key role in several critical aspects of HIV infection. They appear to be the first cells infected by HIV and perhaps the source of HIV production when CD4+ cells become depleted in the patient. Macrophages and microglial cells are the cells infected by HIV in the central nervous system. In tonsils and adenoids of HIV-infected patients, macrophages fuse into multinucleated giant cells that produce huge amounts of virus.
T-tropic isolates, or syncitia-inducing (SI) strains replicate in primary CD4+ T cells as well as in macrophages and use the α-chemokine receptor, CXCR4, for entry. Dual-tropic HIV-1 strains are thought to be transitional strains of the HIV-1 virus and thus are able to use both CCR5 and CXCR4 as co-receptors for viral entry.
The α-chemokine SDF-1, a ligand for CXCR4, suppresses replication of T-tropic HIV-1 isolates. It does this by down-regulating the expression of CXCR4 on the surface of these cells. HIV that use only the CCR5 receptor are termed R5; those that only use CXCR4 are termed X4, and those that use both, X4R5. However, the use of coreceptor alone does not explain viral tropism, as not all R5 viruses are able to use CCR5 on macrophages for a productive infection and HIV can also infect a subtype of myeloid dendritic cells, which probably constitute a reservoir that maintains infection when CD4+ T cell numbers have declined to extremely low levels.
Some people are resistant to certain strains of HIV. One example of how this occurs is people with the CCR5-Δ32 mutation; these people are resistant to infection with R5 virus as the mutation stops HIV from binding to this coreceptor, reducing its ability to infect target cells.
Sexual intercourse is the major mode of HIV transmission. Both X4 and R5 HIV are present in the seminal fluid which is passed from a male to his sexual partner. The virions can then infect numerous cellular targets and disseminate into the whole organism. However, a selection process leads to a predominant transmission of the R5 virus through this pathway. How this selective process works is still under investigation, but one model is that spermatozoa may selectively carry R5 HIV as they possess both CCR3 and CCR5 but not CXCR4 on their surface and that genital epithelial cells preferentially sequester X4 virus. In patients infected with subtype B HIV-1, there is often a co-receptor switch in late-stage disease and T-tropic variants appear that can infect a variety of T cells through CXCR4. These variants then replicate more aggressively with heightened virulence that causes rapid T cell depletion, immune system collapse, and opportunistic infections that mark the advent of AIDS. Thus, during the course of infection, viral adaptation to the use of CXCR4 instead of CCR5 may be a key step in the progression to AIDS. A number of studies with subtype B-infected individuals have determined that between 40 and 50% of AIDS patients can harbour viruses of the SI, and presumably the X4, phenotype.
Entry to the cell
HIV enters macrophages and CD4+ T cells by the adsorption of glycoproteins on its surface to receptors on the target cell followed by fusion of the viral envelope with the cell membrane and the release of the HIV capsid into the cell.
Entry to the cell begins through interaction of the trimeric envelope complex (gp160 spike) and both CD4 and a chemokine receptor (generally either CCR5 or CXCR4, but others are known to interact) on the cell surface. gp120 binds to integrin α4β7 activating LFA-1 the central integrin involved in the establishment of virological synapses, which facilitate efficient cell-to-cell spreading of HIV-1. The gp160 spike contains binding domains for both CD4 and chemokine receptors. The first step in fusion involves the high-affinity attachment of the CD4 binding domains of gp120 to CD4. Once gp120 is bound with the CD4 protein, the envelope complex undergoes a structural change, exposing the chemokine binding domains of gp120 and allowing them to interact with the target chemokine receptor. This allows for a more stable two-pronged attachment, which allows the N-terminal fusion peptide gp41 to penetrate the cell membrane. Repeat sequences in gp41, HR1 and HR2 then interact, causing the collapse of the extracellular portion of gp41 into a hairpin. This loop structure brings the virus and cell membranes close together, allowing fusion of the membranes and subsequent entry of the viral capsid.
After HIV has bound to the target cell, the HIV RNA and various enzymes, including reverse transcriptase, integrase, ribonuclease and protease, are injected into the cell. During the microtubule based transport to the nucleus, the viral single strand RNA genome is transcribed into double strand DNA, which is then integrated into a host chromosome.
HIV can infect dendritic cells (DCs) by this CD4-CCR5 route, but another route using mannose-specific C-type lectin receptors such as DC-SIGN can also be used. DCs are one of the first cells encountered by the virus during sexual transmission. They are currently thought to play an important role by transmitting HIV to T-cells when the virus is captured in the mucosa by DCs.
Replication and transcription
Shortly after the viral capsid enters the cell, an enzyme called reverse transcriptase liberates the single-stranded (+)RNA from the attached viral proteins and copies it into a complementary DNA. This process of reverse transcription is extremely error-prone and it is during this step that mutations may occur. Such mutations may cause drug resistance. The reverse transcriptase then makes a complementary DNA strand to form a double-stranded viral DNA intermediate (vDNA). This vDNA is then transported into the cell nucleus. The integration of the viral DNA into the host cell's genome is carried out by another viral enzyme called integrase.
This integrated viral DNA may then lie dormant, in the latent stage of HIV infection. To actively produce the virus, certain cellular transcription factors need to be present, the most important of which is NF-κB (NF kappa B), which is upregulated when T-cells become activated. This means that those cells most likely to be killed by HIV are those currently fighting infection.
In this replication process, the integrated provirus is copied to mRNA which is then spliced into smaller pieces. These small pieces produce the regulatory proteins Tat (which encourages new virus production) and Rev. As Rev accumulates it gradually starts to inhibit mRNA splicing. At this stage, the structural proteins Gag and Env are produced from the full-length mRNA. The full-length RNA is actually the virus genome; it binds to the Gag protein and is packaged into new virus particles.
HIV-1 and HIV-2 appear to package their RNA differently; HIV-1 will bind to any appropriate RNA whereas HIV-2 will preferentially bind to the mRNA which was used to create the Gag protein itself. This may mean that HIV-1 is better able to mutate (HIV-1 infection progresses to AIDS faster than HIV-2 infection and is responsible for the majority of global infections).
Assembly and release
The final step of the viral cycle, assembly of new HIV-1 virons, begins at the plasma membrane of the host cell. The Env polyprotein (gp160) goes through the endoplasmic reticulum and is transported to the Golgi complex where it is cleaved by protease and processed into the two HIV envelope glycoproteins gp41 and gp120. These are transported to the plasma membrane of the host cell where gp41 anchors the gp120 to the membrane of the infected cell. The Gag (p55) and Gag-Pol (p160) polyproteins also associate with the inner surface of the plasma membrane along with the HIV genomic RNA as the forming virion begins to bud from the host cell. Maturation either occurs in the forming bud or in the immature virion after it buds from the host cell. During maturation, HIV proteases cleave the polyproteins into individual functional HIV proteins and enzymes. The various structural components then assemble to produce a mature HIV virion. This cleavage step can be inhibited by protease inhibitors. The mature virus is then able to infect another cell.
HIV differs from many viruses in that it has very high genetic variability. This diversity is a result of its fast replication cycle, with the generation of 109 to 1010 virions every day, coupled with a high mutation rate of approximately 3 x 10-5 per nucleotide base per cycle of replication and recombinogenic properties of reverse transcriptase. This complex scenario leads to the generation of many variants of HIV in a single infected patient in the course of one day. This variability is compounded when a single cell is simultaneously infected by two or more different strains of HIV. When simultaneous infection occurs, the genome of progeny virions may be composed of RNA strands from two different strains. This hybrid virion then infects a new cell where it undergoes replication. As this happens, the reverse transcriptase, by jumping back and forth between the two different RNA templates, will generate a newly synthesized retroviral DNA sequence that is a recombinant between the two parental genomes. This recombination is most obvious when it occurs between subtypes.
The closely related simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) exhibits a somewhat different behavior: in its natural hosts, African green monkeys and sooty mangabeys, the retrovirus is present in high levels in the blood, but evokes only a mild immune response, does not cause the development of simian AIDS, and does not undergo the extensive mutation and recombination typical of HIV. By contrast, infection of heterologous hosts (rhesus or cynomologus macaques) with SIV results in the generation of genetic diversity that is on the same order as HIV in infected humans; these heterologous hosts also develop simian AIDS. The relationship, if any, between genetic diversification, immune response, and disease progression is unknown.
Three groups of HIV-1 have been identified on the basis of differences in env: M, N, and O. Group M is the most prevalent and is subdivided into eight subtypes (or clades), based on the whole genome, which are geographically distinct. The most prevalent are subtypes B (found mainly in North America and Europe), A and D (found mainly in Africa), and C (found mainly in Africa and Asia); these subtypes form branches in the phylogenetic tree representing the lineage of the M group of HIV-1. Coinfection with distinct subtypes gives rise to circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). In 2000, the last year in which an analysis of global subtype prevalence was made, 47.2 percent of infections worldwide were of subtype C, 26.7 percent were of subtype A/CRF02_AG, 12.3 percent were of subtype B, 5.3 percent were of subtype D, 3.2 percent were of CRF_AE, and the remaining 5.3 percent were composed of other subtypes and CRFs. Most HIV-1 research is focused on subtype B; few laboratories focus on the other subtypes.
The genetic sequence of HIV-2 is only partially homologous to HIV-1 and more closely resembles that of SIV than HIV-1.
The clinical course of infection
Infection with HIV-1 is associated with a progressive decrease of the CD4+ T cell count and an increase in viral load. The stage of infection can be determined by measuring the patient's CD4+ T cell count, and the level of HIV in the blood.
HIV infection has basically four stages: incubation period, acute infection, latency stage and AIDS. The initial incubation period upon infection is asymptomatic and usually lasts between two and four weeks. The second stage, acute infection, which lasts an average of 28 days and can include symptoms such as fever, lymphadenopathy (swollen lymph nodes), pharyngitis (sore throat), rash, myalgia (muscle pain), malaise, and mouth and esophageal sores. The latency stage, which occurs third, shows few or no symptoms and can last anywhere from two weeks to twenty years and beyond. AIDS, the fourth and final stage of HIV infection shows as symptoms of various opportunistic infections.
Acute HIV infection
The initial infection with HIV generally occurs after transfer of body fluids from an infected person to an uninfected one. The first stage of infection, the primary, or acute infection, is a period of rapid viral replication that immediately follows the individual's exposure to HIV leading to an abundance of virus in the peripheral blood with levels of HIV commonly approaching several million viruses per mL. This response is accompanied by a marked drop in the numbers of circulating CD4+ T cells. This acute viremia is associated in virtually all patients with the activation of CD8+ T cells, which kill HIV-infected cells, and subsequently with antibody production, or seroconversion. The CD8+ T cell response is thought to be important in controlling virus levels, which peak and then decline, as the CD4+ T cell counts rebound to around 800 cells per µL (the normal blood value is 1200 cells per µL ). A good CD8+ T cell response has been linked to slower disease progression and a better prognosis, though it does not eliminate the virus. During this period (usually 2–4 weeks post-exposure) most individuals (80 to 90%) develop an influenza or mononucleosis-like illness called acute HIV infection, the most common symptoms of which may include fever, lymphadenopathy, pharyngitis, rash, myalgia, malaise, mouth and esophagal sores, and may also include, but less commonly, headache, nausea and vomiting, enlarged liver/spleen, weight loss, thrush, and neurological symptoms. Infected individuals may experience all, some, or none of these symptoms. The duration of symptoms varies, averaging 28 days and usually lasting at least a week. Because of the nonspecific nature of these symptoms, they are often not recognized as signs of HIV infection. Even if patients go to their doctors or a hospital, they will often be misdiagnosed as having one of the more common infectious diseases with the same symptoms. Consequently, these primary symptoms are not used to diagnose HIV infection as they do not develop in all cases and because many are caused by other more common diseases. However, recognizing the syndrome can be important because the patient is much more infectious during this period.
A strong immune defense reduces the number of viral particles in the blood stream, marking the start of the infection's clinical latency stage. Clinical latency can vary between two weeks and 20 years. During this early phase of infection, HIV is active within lymphoid organs, where large amounts of virus become trapped in the follicular dendritic cells (FDC) network. The surrounding tissues that are rich in CD4+ T cells may also become infected, and viral particles accumulate both in infected cells and as free virus. Individuals who are in this phase are still infectious. During this time, CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells carry most of the proviral load.
- For more details on this topic, see AIDS Diagnosis, AIDS Symptoms and WHO Disease Staging System for HIV Infection and Disease
When CD4+ T cell numbers decline below a critical level of 200 cells per µL, cell-mediated immunity is lost, and infections with a variety of opportunistic microbes appear. The first symptoms often include moderate and unexplained weight loss, recurring respiratory tract infections (such as sinusitis, bronchitis, otitis media, pharyngitis), prostatitis, skin rashes, and oral ulcerations. Common opportunistic infections and tumors, most of which are normally controlled by robust CD4+ T cell-mediated immunity then start to affect the patient. Typically, resistance is lost early on to oral Candida species and to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which leads to an increased susceptibility to oral candidiasis (thrush) and tuberculosis. Later, reactivation of latent herpes viruses may cause worsening recurrences of herpes simplex eruptions, shingles, Epstein-Barr virus-induced B-cell lymphomas, or Kaposi's sarcoma. Pneumonia caused by the fungus Pneumocystis jirovecii is common and often fatal. In the final stages of AIDS, infection with cytomegalovirus (another herpes virus) or Mycobacterium avium complex is more prominent. Not all patients with AIDS get all these infections or tumors, and there are other tumors and infections that are less prominent but still significant.
Many HIV-positive people are unaware that they are infected with the virus. For example, less than 1% of the sexually active urban population in Africa have been tested and this proportion is even lower in rural populations. Furthermore, only 0.5% of pregnant women attending urban health facilities are counselled, tested or receive their test results. Again, this proportion is even lower in rural health facilities. Since donors may therefore be unaware of their infection, donor blood and blood products used in medicine and medical research are routinely screened for HIV.
HIV-1 testing consists of initial screening with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect antibodies to HIV-1. Specimens with a nonreactive result from the initial ELISA are considered HIV-negative unless new exposure to an infected partner or partner of unknown HIV status has occurred. Specimens with a reactive ELISA result are retested in duplicate. If the result of either duplicate test is reactive, the specimen is reported as repeatedly reactive and undergoes confirmatory testing with a more specific supplemental test (e.g., Western blot or, less commonly, an immunofluorescence assay (IFA)). Only specimens that are repeatedly reactive by ELISA and positive by IFA or reactive by Western blot are considered HIV-positive and indicative of HIV infection. Specimens that are repeatedly ELISA-reactive occasionally provide an indeterminate Western blot result, which may be either an incomplete antibody response to HIV in an infected person, or nonspecific reactions in an uninfected person. Although IFA can be used to confirm infection in these ambiguous cases, this assay is not widely used. Generally, a second specimen should be collected more than a month later and retested for persons with indeterminate Western blot results. Although much less commonly available, nucleic acid testing (e.g., viral RNA or proviral DNA amplification method) can also help diagnosis in certain situations. In addition, a few tested specimens might provide inconclusive results because of a low quantity specimen. In these situations, a second specimen is collected and tested for HIV infection.
Modern two-step HIV testing is extremely accurate. In 2005, the chance of a false-positive result on an HIV test was estimated at 0.000004% in the general U.S. population.
- See also Antiretroviral drug
There is currently no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS. The only known method of prevention is avoiding exposure to the virus. However, a course of antiretroviral treatment administered immediately after exposure, referred to as post-exposure prophylaxis, is believed to reduce the risk of infection if begun as quickly as possible. Current treatment for HIV infection consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART. This has been highly beneficial to many HIV-infected individuals since its introduction in 1996, when the protease inhibitor-based HAART initially became available. Current HAART options are combinations (or "cocktails") consisting of at least three drugs belonging to at least two types, or "classes," of antiretroviral agents. Typically, these classes are two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NARTIs or NRTIs) plus either a protease inhibitor or a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). New classes of drugs such as Entry Inhibitors provide treatment options for patients who are infected with viruses already resistant to common therapies, although they are not widely available and not typically accessible in resource-limited settings. Because AIDS progression in children is more rapid and less predictable than in adults, particularly in young infants, more aggressive treatment is recommended for children than adults. In developed countries where HAART is available, doctors assess their patients thoroughly: measuring the viral load, how fast CD4 declines, and patient readiness. They then decide when to recommend starting treatment.
HAART neither cures the patient nor does it uniformly remove all symptoms; high levels of HIV-1, often HAART resistant, return if treatment is stopped. Moreover, it would take more than a lifetime for HIV infection to be cleared using HAART. Despite this, many HIV-infected individuals have experienced remarkable improvements in their general health and quality of life, which has led to a large reduction in HIV-associated morbidity and mortality in the developed world. One study suggests the average life expectancy of an HIV infected individual is 32 years from the time of infection if treatment is started when the CD4 count is 350/µL. In the absence of HAART, progression from HIV infection to AIDS has been observed to occur at a median of between nine to ten years and the median survival time after developing AIDS is only 9.2 months. However, HAART sometimes achieves far less than optimal results, in some circumstances being effective in less than fifty percent of patients. This is due to a variety of reasons such as medication intolerance/side effects, prior ineffective antiretroviral therapy and infection with a drug-resistant strain of HIV. However, non-adherence and non-persistence with antiretroviral therapy is the major reason most individuals fail to benefit from HAART. The reasons for non-adherence and non-persistence with HAART are varied and overlapping. Major psychosocial issues, such as poor access to medical care, inadequate social supports, psychiatric disease and drug abuse contribute to non-adherence. The complexity of these HAART regimens, whether due to pill number, dosing frequency, meal restrictions or other issues along with side effects that create intentional non-adherence also contribute to this problem. The side effects include lipodystrophy, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, an increase in cardiovascular risks and birth defects.
The timing for starting HIV treatment is still debated. There is no question that treatment should be started before the patient's CD4 count falls below 200, and most national guidelines say to start treatment once the CD4 count falls below 350; but there is some evidence from cohort studies that treatment should be started before the CD4 count falls below 350. In those countries where CD4 counts are not available, patients with WHO stage III or IV disease should be offered treatment.
Anti-retroviral drugs are expensive, and the majority of the world's infected individuals do not have access to medications and treatments for HIV and AIDS. Research to improve current treatments includes decreasing side effects of current drugs, further simplifying drug regimens to improve adherence, and determining the best sequence of regimens to manage drug resistance. Unfortunately, only a vaccine is thought to be able to halt the pandemic. This is because a vaccine would cost less, thus being affordable for developing countries, and would not require daily treatment. However, after over 20 years of research, HIV-1 remains a difficult target for a vaccine.
Treatments in development
Media reports in 2008 and a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2009 described the anecdotal case of an HIV-positive patient of a Berlin doctor, Gero Hütter. The patient, who had both acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and HIV infection, was said by some to be "functionally cured" of his HIV following a bone marrow transplant for AML. The bone marrow donor had been selected as homozygous for a CCR5-Δ32 mutation (which confers resistance to "almost all strains of HIV"). After 600 days without antiretroviral drug treatment, HIV levels in the patient's blood, bone marrow and bowel were below the limit of detection, although the authors note that the virus is likely present in other tissues. Researchers cautioned that it would be premature to consider this treatment a possible cure because of its anecdotal nature, the mortality risk associated with bone marrow transplants and other concerns.
UNAIDS and the WHO estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. Despite recent improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the AIDS pandemic claimed an estimated 2.8 million (between 2.4 and 3.3 million) lives in 2005 of which more than half a million (570,000) were children.
In 2007, between 30.6 and 36.1 million people were believed to live with HIV, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people that year, including 330,000 children; there were 2.5 million new infections.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst-affected region, with an estimated 21.6 to 27.4 million people currently living with HIV. Two million [1.5–3.0 million] of them are children younger than 15 years of age. More than 64% of all people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, as are more than three quarters of all women living with HIV. In 2005, there were 12.0 million [10.6–13.6 million] AIDS orphans living in sub-Saharan Africa 2005. South & South East Asia are second-worst affected with 15% of the total. AIDS accounts for the deaths of 500,000 children in this region. South Africa has the largest number of HIV patients in the world followed by Nigeria. India has an estimated 2.5 million infections (0.23% of population), making India the country with the third largest population of HIV patients. In the 35 African nations with the highest prevalence, average life expectancy is 48.3 years—6.5 years less than it would be without the disease.
The latest evaluation report of the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department assesses the development effectiveness of the World Bank's country-level HIV/AIDS assistance defined as policy dialogue, analytic work, and lending with the explicit objective of reducing the scope or impact of the AIDS epidemic. This is the first comprehensive evaluation of the World Bank's HIV/AIDS support to countries, from the beginning of the epidemic through mid-2004. Because the Bank aims to assist in implementation of national government programmes, their experience provides important insights on how national AIDS programmes can be made more effective.
The development of HAART as effective therapy for HIV infection and AIDS has substantially reduced the death rate from this disease in those areas where these drugs are widely available. This has created the misperception that the disease has vanished. In fact, as the life expectancy of persons with AIDS has increased in countries where HAART is widely used, the number of persons living with AIDS has increased substantially. In the United States, the number of persons with AIDS increased from about 35,000 in 1988 to over 220,000 in 1996 and 312,000 in 2002
In Africa, the number of MTCT and the prevalence of AIDS is beginning to reverse decades of steady progress in child survival. Countries such as Uganda are attempting to curb the MTCT epidemic by offering VCT (voluntary counselling and testing), PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child transmission) and ANC (ante-natal care) services, which include the distribution of antiretroviral therapy.


What is Guiding?
Girl Guides is a fun, weekly, after-school activity. And for many girls it is much more than that. Guiding becomes a central point for developing social skills and life skills.
At Guides, girls and women are provided with opportunities to
- develop new skills
- try cool activities
- gain confidence to think and act for themselves
- make new friends
- acquire a greater respect for the environment and
- experience a sense of community while having fun.
That’s what Guiding is all about.
All members of Guiding are referred to as Guides.
This encompasses all the age-groups that you may remember as
- Gumnut Guides (aged 5-6 years)
- Brownie Guides (aged 7- 11 years)
- Girl Guides (11-14 years)
- Ranger Guides (14-18 years)
- Rangers (18-25 years).
You may hear them referred to informally as Junior Guides or Senior Guides, but to be correct, they are all Guides.
Girl Guides Ballarat caters for all these age groups.
Girls are members of a Guide Unit of similar aged girls in their community. They help to decide, plan and participate in their own unit programs.
The Guiding program has an integrated approach through
- commitment to the Promise and Law
- exploring the outdoors
- service in the community
- learning by doing and
- progressive self-development.
A World-Wide Organisation
Guides Australia is part of a worldwide network which has more than 10 million members in 140 different countries.
For 100 years, Guiding has been helping many thousands of girls and young women develop strong personal values, self-confidence, responsibility and leadership skills.
Guiding provides activities for girls regardless of racial background or religious beliefs. The Guiding program is flexible, allowing for the varying maturity of each individual girl.
Guiding is an all-female, girl-centred organisation that ensures the girls have the freedom, space, time and support to reach their full potential.
Research has shown that many girls learn more effectively in an all-female environment. Development of self-esteem and confidence is enhanced within secure surroundings, with strong women as positive role models.
- Make a commitment to the Guide Promise
- Develop self-confidence and self-respect in a supportive peer group
- Are heard and have their opinions considered
- Learn and grow in a non-competitive environment
- Experience fun and friendship
- Are challenged and introduced to new adventures
- Participate and grow in a non-formal educational program
- Contribute to the development of the program
- Gain leadership and life skills
- Experience the outdoors
- Develop an understanding and respect for other people, cultures and traditions
- Use their new skills to benefit the wider community
Our mission is to enable girls and young women to grow into confident, self-respecting, responsible community members.
Acknowledgement to Country
-> learn more about the Guide Victoria Acknowledgement to Country


What is polio?
Polio is a very serious viral disease that in severe cases causes problems with breathing, paralysis. Today, polio is almost completely eradicated in the Western world, thanks to extensive immunization campaigns, but it continues to affect both children and adults in countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Polio is the commonly used abbreviation for poliomyelitis, also called infantile paralysis. The virus is usually spread through fecal-oral route, which is why the risk is higher in areas with contaminated water supply. It can be asymptomatic, but if the virus enters the blood stream, it can reach central nervous system, causing different types of paralysis, depending on which nerves are affected.
As for the treatment, unfortunately there is no cure for polio. Treatment is mainly focused on alleviating the symptoms, speeding up the recovery and preventing possible complications. Considering the severity and the impact of this disease, it is clear that the prevention is extremely important.
Prevention of polio
Good personal hygiene and improved public sanitation can somewhat reduce the risk of polio, the only efficient way to prevent it is the vaccine.
In United States, most children receive four doses of the vaccine in form of inactivated poliovirus or IPV. The first dose is administered when the child is two months old, the second at four months and the third between six and 18 months. The fourth vaccine, called booster, is given between ages four and six, before the child starts going to school.
This vaccine is 90% effective after first two shots and 99% effective after the third one. Even though it contains poliovirus, the vaccine cannot cause the actual disease. The vaccine is effective even for people with weak immune system, although it is not certain how helpful it is for those with severe immune deficiency.
Some people may have an allergic reaction after the IPV vaccine, because it contains traces of certain antibiotics. People who are allergic to streptomycin, neomycin and polymyxin B should not be given the IPC vaccine.
Not all parents choose to have their child vaccinated for polio. People who have not been vaccinated as children are advised to get vaccinated as adults. The same goes for those whose vaccination records are lost or inexistent. The series of primary polio shots consists of two doses at four to eight weeks interval between them and the third one six months or one year after the second dose.
Those who plan to travel to countries or areas with documented cases of polio should receive a booster dose of the IPV vaccine. The booster dose provides permanent protection against polio.


Carl Rogers' 19 Propositions
Tudor and Merry (2006: 98) define the 19 propositions as "the group of statements which, together, constitute a person-centred theory of personality and behaviour."
They represent how:
- Consciousness is experienced from the first-person point of view.
- Behaviour is a product of self-belief.
- A safe emotional environment is necessary for psychological change to take place.
Origins of the Term (First Use of the Term)
The 19 propositions are one of the three pillars of the person-centred approach, the other two being the seven stages of process and the six necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change.
First presented in 1951 in Carl Rogers’ book Client-Centered Therapy, the 19 propositions are based on phenomenology.
In developing this part of his theory, Rogers drew on the work of other psychologists and on his own experience of counselling clients:
‘Taken as a whole, the series of propositions presents a theory of behavior which attempts to account for the phenomena previously known, and also for the facts regarding personality and behavior which have more recently been observed in therapy’ (Rogers, 1951: 482)
Rogers' Original List
1. All individuals (organisms) exist in a continually changing world of experience (phenomenal field) of which they are the center.
2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual field is “reality” for the individual.
3. The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.
4. The organism has one basic tendency and striving – to actualize, maintain and enhance the experiencing organism.
5. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its needs as experienced, in the field as perceived.
6. Emotion accompanies, and in general facilitates, such goal directed behavior, the kind of emotion being related to the perceived significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the organism.
7. The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual.
8. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the self.
9. As a result of interaction with the environment, and particularly as a result of evaluational interaction with others, the structure of the self is formed – an organized, fluid but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and relationships of the “I” or the “me”, together with values attached to these concepts.
10. The values attached to experiences, and the values that are a part of the self-structure, in some instances, are values experienced directly by the organism, and in some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in distorted fashion, as if they had been experienced directly.
11. As experiences occur in the life of the individual, they are either, a) symbolized, perceived and organized into some relation to the self, b) ignored because there is no perceived relationship to the self structure, c) denied symbolization or given distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the structure of the self.
12. Most of the ways of behaving that are adopted by the organism are those that are consistent with the concept of self.
13. In some instances, behavior may be brought about by organic experiences and needs which have not been symbolized.
14. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences, which consequently are not symbolized and organized into the gestalt of the self structure. When this situation exists, there is a basic or potential psychological tension.
15. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the sensory and visceral experiences of the organism are, or may be, assimilated on a symbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
16. Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization of the structure of the self may be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are, the more rigidly the self structure is organized to maintain itself.
17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of threat to the self structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived and examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such experiences.
18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated system all his sensory and visceral experiences, then he is necessarily more understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self structure more of his organic experiences, he finds that he is replacing his present value system – based extensively on introjections which have been distortedly symbolized – with a continuing organismic valuing process
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Carl Rogers' 19 Propositions
The 19 Propositions in Plain English
The 19 propositions are complex to read and understand, being written in 1950s’ philosophical language.
They can be decoded as follows:
- I make sense of myself, others and my world based on my own consistently changing experience.
- My sense of reality is unique, formed out of what I experience, and out of how I process and understand my experience.
- My entire way of being and doing arises out of my personal sense of reality.
- I behave as I do in order to meet my needs, as I experience and perceive them, and as I experience and perceive reality.
- I am emotionally present in my behaviour. My feelings are part of how I attempt to get my perceived needs met. What I feel now strongly depends on how important the need is.
- Part of my reality is my sense of self.
- You can adequately understand my behaviour only through understanding how I see myself and others in the world.
- My sense of self arises from my experiences and perceptions, especially from comparing myself with others, and from the opinions and judgements of others as I perceive them. My sense of self is fluid but includes consistent perceptions. I attach values to these perceptions.
- I have an innate impulse to care for myself, heal and grow. This includes seeking to keep myself safe and intact, and to realise my inner potential, becoming who I am capable of being.
- The values I attach to my experiences and how I value myself are based on my own experience but also include values taken and absorbed from others. I may be unaware of some of my values derived from others.
- There are a number of ways I can meet my experiences. I can make personal some of the meanings and integrate them into my view of the world. Or I can ignore them because they do not fit with how I see myself or the world.
- I usually behave in ways that are consistent with how I see myself. So if I believe that I have little value, I will behave as if this is true.
- Underlying needs and experiences that I deny or distort – or have not managed to make sense of – will tend to leak through in my behaviour. This behaviour may be less consistent with how I see myself. I am not likely to own this behaviour.
- When I disconnect from my own self, I will deny my awareness of my own experience, so it will be very difficult for me to make sense of the world and other people. This causes unease and tension (sometimes known as ‘incongruence’).
- When I am connected to my authentic being, I am able to be open to my actual experience – its immediacy and totality – and to integrate this into the world.
- I may find the experience threatening if it is inconsistent with how I see myself in the world. The more experiences I find threatening, the more rigid my sense of self becomes, and the more tightly I cling to my viewpoint.
- If I feel accepted and understood, I may be able to look at experiences I had previously denied. When there is this lack of threat, I can begin to make sense of myself. In this way, I am healing myself. (In this statement Rogers was referring to when a client experiences the core conditions in therapy.
- When I am able to hold in awareness and integrate all my actual embodied experiencing, I am inevitably more understanding and tolerant of others, and more able to understand the value of others and to accept them as separate beings.
- When I can reshape my view of the world and myself, and include previously denied experiences, I begin to reshape my values. I can let go of introjected values and become a fully functioning person, trusting in myself and my own experience.
Free Handout Download
Carl Rogers' 19 Propositions
How We Can Use the 19 Propositions
Merry (2014: 34) writes:
‘The nineteen propositions repay careful reading because together they provide us with an elegant theory of how and under what circumstances people change, and why certain qualities of relationship promote that change.’
Thus, they are of value to us as counsellors both in working with clients and in developing ourselves, since ‘part of the counselling journey, specifically in PD [personal development] groups, is about encouraging those elements of our personality that are invisible to us – perhaps not-for-growth elements of ourselves – to come into our awareness, challenging us to look at them’ (Kelly, 2017: 51).
Kelly K (2017) Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide. Warrington: Counselling Tutor
Merry T (2014) Learning and Being in Person-Centred Counselling, ROSS ON WYE: PCCS Books
Rogers, C. R., (1951). Client-Centered Therapy. London: Constable
Tudor K and Merry T (2006) Dictionary of Person-Centred Psychology, ROSS ON WYE: PCCS Books
Page updated Dec 2020


“The miracle of Easter Island lies in this audacity
that drove the inhabitants of a small island, devoid of
resources, to erect against the horizon of the Pacific Ocean,
monuments worthy of a great people.”
This fact, seen by Alfred
Métraux to be a miracle, was for a long time regarded as one of
the great enigmas of Easter Island. Indeed, the first navigators
and explorers discovered an island almost completely devoid of
forest cover, yet whose littoral was decorated with monumental
How had the islanders
dwelling here proceeded to fashion and raise such impressive monuments
when they had no wood ? This resource would have been essential for the
manufacture of rope, winches and structures crucial to the transport and
the erection of their large statues, the so-called Moai.
Recent research revealing the presence of fossilized
pollen in the island’s soil now clearly shows that the land had been
thickly forested from a very ancient era on until shortly before the
arrival of the first visitors. So the elements necessary for erection of
the great statues had indeed been available at the time they were
mystery being solved, a new mystery became manifest, since it was now
necessary to understand the causes of the disappearance of the
island’s forest itself.
While satisfactory explanations have been found to
several of the great enigmas concerning Easter Island, the
disappearance of the island’s forest cover has given rise to a
polemic wherein two completely opposing theses clash.
Indeed, according to a thesis that is often evoked,
Easter Island is the prototypical example illustrating the serious
consequences of the overexploitation of natural resources by man.
According to this thesis, the deforestation of the island, noted by
the first explorers, was due to the negligence of the Pascuenses
themselves. This latter group, applying no forethought, were said to
have cut down all the trees essential to their survival for domestic
purposes or even more foolishly, for constructing, transporting and
setting up their famous Moai. The disappearance of the trees
thus ineluctably led to the decline of their civilization and the
near disappearance of the Pascuenses.
to another thesis, also often evoked, the deforestation of the
island was instead due to a climatic incident, that is to say a
phase of intense cooling or a long period of dryness. Indeed,
although the vegetation of the island had in the beginning
appreciably been the same one as that which partly covers the other
islands of Polynesia, Easter Island, being located much more to the
south, is periodically subject to very cold southern winds and does
not enjoy the benefits of substantial rainfall. Thus, the vegetation,
very abundant in the past, was however undoubtedly at many times
very close to its thresold of survival.
the conclusion of new scientific discoveries and ancient facts
concerning Easter Island and Polynesia, the author brings new light
to bear on this fascinating mystery.