Study pushes back origin of AIDS pandemic to 1908 - Reuters

[steve2470]

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN01511884.html

CHICAGO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - The deadly AIDS virus first began spreading among humans at the turn of the 20th century in sub-Saharan Africa, just as modern cities were emerging in the region, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The finding pushes back the origin of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by several decades, they reported in the journal Nature.

Researchers think the growth of cities -- and high-risk behavior associated with urban life -- may have helped the virus to flourish. There is no cure for AIDS, which is most commonly transmitted through sexual contact.

Prior estimates put the origin of HIV at 1930. But Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona in Tucson now believes HIV began infecting humans between 1884 and 1924.

more at link above

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Wow!

Anybody who has followed the etiological studies has to be dumbfounded by this. What a find!

[enlightenment]

2. Pretty cool -

although the "plus or minus twenty years" line toned my WOW to just wow - since that essentially moves it back to 1930, which is what they've been saying for awhile now!

Still, very interesting science.

[bluestateguy]

3. What? I thought it was a CIA plot!

The conspiracy wackjobs will have to go back to the drawing board for this one.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. That said, The River is really an ingenious piece of historical fiction

Imagine if a fiction writer had come up with Edward Hooper's idea to present an alternative history of AIDS as if it were a documentary history rather than a complex novel. That would be some good reading. As is Hooper's novel. It's extremely interesting reading, but it is a novel, after all.

[Posteritatis]

7. Nah, they'll just ignore it. Inconvenient facts have no place in conspiracy theory! (nt)

[Warpy]

5. Thanks for posting

I've posted this info before, with a range between 1909-1930, but too many people want to believe the conspiracy stories.

HIV is likely older than that, with sporadic transmission happening during the butchery of bush meat. Without cities, roads and transportation, outbreaks remained localized and very limited.

[Obamarama]

6. This is at the same time fascinatingly interesting and disturbing....

Disturbing that until the last 25 years, this virus has been mutating and changing. Going that long unchalleneged and unchecked may make it much tougher to find a cure. I don't know a lot about virus mutation and genetics, but everything I have learned about viruses is that they love to mutate and the longer they are allowed to do, the more elusive they become to methods to kill them. I hope I'm all wet on this assumption.