AIDS Origin Traced To 1920s Kinshasa

An anonymous reader writes: A new study published in Science (abstract) has traced the origin of HIV/AIDS back to Kinshasa in the 1920s. The authors say Kinshasa, now in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was then undergoing explosive population growth while supporting an abundant sex trade. These factors, combined with the use of unsterilized needles at health clinics and the railways moving a million people in and out of the city each year, conspired to start the pandemic. "HIV is a mutated version of a chimpanzee virus, known as simian immunodeficiency virus, which probably made the species-jump through contact with infected blood while handling bush meat. The virus made the jump on multiple occasions. One event led to HIV-1 subgroup O which affects tens of thousands in Cameroon. Yet only one cross-species jump, HIV-1 subgroup M, went on to infect millions of people across every country in the world."

Comments

Re:The story

[AK Marc]

Okay, was there no monkey meat business before 1920s? Why did it make the jump only at that time?

Globalization. The ease that the infected could move around is what spread the disease. The jumps likely happened before as well, but died out in the infected humans.

How exactly does a virus change from a chimp version to a human version?

What change? It's a simian virus. We are simians. You are requiring change when none is necessary. And it changed the same as the pig and bird flus.

Re:Doctor Mary's Monkey

[93 Escort Wagon]

If I wanted to hear deluded rantings I'd go to the local nuthouse.

Well, you ARE on Slashdot...