AIDS is now more than a quarter- century old. The disease has killed 20 million people worldwide, and it is estimated that the 40 million more are infected with HIV (human immuno- deficiency virus), virus that causes AIDS.

Ask your physician where AIDS came from and he or she will probably tell you the epidemic started when monkeys or chimps in the African bush transferred the AIDS virus (HIV) to a person while butchering primate meat for food or through an animal bite.

For the first two decades of the epidemic the green monkey theory of AIDS was widely heralded in the major media, and was accepted without question by leading AIDS experts and educators. The theory was so universally popular (except in Africa) that it easily became fact in the minds of most people.

ROBERT GALLO, M.D. AND THE GREEN MONKEY THEORY

The AIDS virus was first discovered by Robert Gallo at the National Cancer Institute in April 1984. Shortly thereafter Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute in Paris claimed that he (and not Gallo) had first discovered the AIDS virus.