Well, Im not taking one stance or the other. I simply have no idea if it was engineered or not.
I imagine that we could be talking population control to some extent, though if that was the case I don't think it has worked very well. According to the conspiracy theorists it was placed in african monkeys first as a testing phase. I guess Africa is as good a place as any to start the wipe out in.
But really, I don't know the actual motives or end result the people wjo would have made it would be striving for if the conspiracy is true.