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New HIV Strain Discovered

Posted by kdawson on from the evolution-in-action dept.

reporter and barnyjr were among the readers alerting us to the discovery of a new strain of the HIV virus, found in a woman from the west central African nation of Cameroon. "It differs from the three known strains of human immunodeficiency virus and appears to be closely related to a form of simian virus recently discovered in wild gorillas, researchers report in Monday's edition of the journal Nature Medicine. ... The most likely explanation for the new find is gorilla-to-human transmission, Plantier's team said. But... they cannot rule out the possibility that the new strain started in chimpanzees and moved into gorillas and then humans, or moved directly from chimpanzees to both gorillas and humans. ... Researchers said it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere. The virus's rapid replication indicates that it is adapted to human cells, the researchers reported."

8 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. How? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How would HIV be transmitted from a gorilla to humans?

    1. Re:How? by neokushan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Somebody once told me, and by somebody I mean someone that should actually be knowledgeable about the subject (Zoology expert), that apparently our DNA is close enough to some primates that it IS possible to have offspring with them, similar to how Lions and Tigers can have offspring (of course most animal hybrids are usually sterile), but nobody's ever tried it for a plethora of reasons (mostly moral ones).

      Now this leads me to 2 points:

      1) If anyone has any facts or data relating to this little tidbit of information that either proves or disproves it, please post a link or two! I'm very intrigued to know if he is actually right.

      2) If this is IS true, then we can probably put this whole idea of someone fucking a Monkey and catching AIDS to rest, since by and large there would HAVE to have been a monkey/human hybrid born at some point, which I don't think has ever happened (despite supposedly being possible).

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      +1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
    2. Re:How? by rainmaestro · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'd have to go back into journals to find exact articles, but here is what I remember from my Primatology courses:

      (1) Human/Chimp hybrid experiments have been done, by a Soviet researcher in the early 20th Century. No offspring were ever produced.

      (2) Recent research (2000+) suggests that we did breed with chimps regularly in the period following the initial divergence. As time goes on and we continue to diverge, it becomes less feasible.

      Not very specific, but it wasn't a topic we covered in any real depth.

  2. What scares me by boliboboli · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is when some new strain of HIV becomes more easily transmittable.

  3. Re:A legacy of colonialism by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There was a show describing natural immunity to HIV. In fact, one of the interesting discussions was how the prostitutes in Africa had actually developed immunity to the virus.

  4. you forgot to mention by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the woman was 62 when she was diagnosed in 2004

    meaning, this could be an old strain of aids. by "old" i mean it could have been in the human population for a long time

    i hypothesize this simply because the woman is still alive (assuming she wasn't infected 2 years ago) and mild disease is a sign of an "old" disease

    the fate of all diseases and all parasites is equilibrium with its hosts. it does no good to kill off your host so quickly there's no retransmission. so after an initial sickle swinging period of mass slaughter, the strains of any disease that dominate will be those who tend to be more mild, simply because by killing less faster, they spread wider and therefore survive longer

    so most likely its not the stand or 28 days later we're talking here

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  5. Re:One Brave Dude... by dbet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Or a gorilla scratched or bit him.

  6. no hiv was ever transmitted from sex with a monkey by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Interesting

    do you have any idea how strong a chimpanzee or a gorilla is? we're not talking about a placid herbivore here, we're talking 100+ pounds of pure muscle, sinew and razor sharp canines. this is not an environment in which any bestiality can possibly occur. i think sex with a shark would be easier, seriously

    the whole aids-was-from-sex-with-a-monkey line of thought is pure high school sophomore stupidity. way more 4chan than actual plausible science

    bushmeat is what it is: a messy stew of tropical disease waiting to happen, tons of transmission avenues, from open sores on the skin and in the mouth, to the sheer bloodiness of butchery. no one ever said SARS was from sex with a civet cat, or swine flu was from sex with a pig. i really don't think in the entire history of humanity anyone has ever had sex with a living chimpanzee or gorilla just because of the physical impossibility of it all

    oh great, now i just launched necrophilic bestiality meme for aids origin

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it