It really was sex with monkeys

[Martrae]

HIV's Ancestry Traced to Wild Chimps
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Twenty-five years after the first AIDS cases emerged, scientists have confirmed that the HIV virus plaguing humans really did originate in wild chimpanzees, in a corner of Cameroon.

Solving the mystery of HIV's ancestry was dirty work. Scientists employed trackers to plunge through dense jungle and collect the fresh feces of wild apes - more than 1,300 samples in all.

Before that, it took seven years of research just to develop the testing methods to genetically trace the primate version of the virus in living wild chimps without hurting the endangered species.

Until now, "no one was able to look. No one had the tools," said Dr. Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She led the team of international researchers that reported the success in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

"We're 25 years into this pandemic," Hahn said. "We don't have a cure. We don't have a vaccine. But we know where it came from. At least we can make a check mark on one of those."

Scientists long have known that nonhuman primates carry their own version of the AIDS virus, called SIV or simian immunodeficiency virus. But with one exception, it had been found only in captive chimpanzees, particularly a subspecies that in the wild populates mostly West Africa.

It was not known how prevalent the virus was in chimps in the wild, or how genetically or geographically diverse it was, complicating efforts to pin down the jump from animal to man.

Hahn's team tested chimp feces for SIV antibodies, finding them in a subspecies called Pan troglodytes troglodytes in southern Cameroon.

Chimps tend to form geographically distinct communities. By genetically analyzing the feces, researchers could trace individual infected chimps. The team found some chimp communities with infection rates as high as 35 percent, while others had no infection at all.

Every single infected chimp had a common base genetic pattern that indicated a common ancestor, Hahn said.

There are three types of HIV-1, the strain of the human virus responsible for most of the worldwide epidemic. Genetic analysis let Hahn identify chimp communities near Cameroon's Sanaga River whose viral strains are most closely related to the most common of those HIV-1 subtypes.

"The genetic similarity was striking," Hahn said.

The first human known to be infected with HIV was a man from Kinshasa in the nearby country of Congo who had his blood stored in 1959 as part of a medical study, decades before scientists knew the AIDS virus existed.

Presumably, someone in rural Cameroon was bitten by a chimp or was cut while butchering one and became infected with the ape virus. That person passed it to someone else.

The Sanaga River long has been a commercial waterway, for transporting hardwood, ivory and other items to more urban areas. Eventually, someone infected made it to Kinshasa.

"How many different transmission events occurred between that initial hunter and this virus making it to Kinshasa, I don't know. It could have been one, it could have been 10, it could have been 100," Hahn said. "Eventually, it ended up in an urban area, and that's where it really got going."

Somewhere in all that spread, the virus became more deadly to people than it is to chimps, who seldom are bothered much by SIV.

The research seems to settle any question of HIV's origin, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's AIDS chief.

When tracing a virus' evolution, "it's important to get as close to the source as you can," he said. "It's of historic interest."

[Thon]

i saw a documentary a while ago which argued that HIV got transmitted to people via a vaccine for polio iirc, made from chimpanzee's caught in the wild and injected into thousands of people in africa.

seems more likely than 1 person getting bitten by a chimp, then fucking enough people to turn AIDS into a plague

[Gargamellow]

this is what my teacher said: someone killed a chimp, and cut themselves while preparing the meat...the blood mixed, chimps have something in their living blood that mixed with out living blood and aids was born

[Martrae]

Well, if your teacher said it it MUST be true!

[Narrock]

So if you home-school your children it MUST be true.

[Martrae]

Nope...I'm not infallible and neither are teachers.

[Tikker]

this is what my teacher said: someone killed a chimp, and cut themselves while preparing the meat...the blood mixed, chimps have something in their living blood that mixed with out living blood and aids was born

this is actually what a lot of folks have guessed


what they know for sure, is that the dude who got the first batch of aids, later made a contribution to the blood bank, and that's how the pandemic started


back in 1959

[Phlegm]

So it was Tarzan's fault after all.

[Markarado]

Ya'know... The idea that a guy could have got it through his blood as described above never even crossed my mind (although I know that this is possible). I just always assumed that some guy butt fucked a monkey and got aids.

[KILL]

yeah, and probably by some priest who didnt have any little boys handy

[Captain Insano]

I don't believe any of it. I think god brought this plague onto the world as retaliation for the first gay pride march and homos have been suffering ever since. Its the bisexuals who were at fault for transmitting the disease to the straight people.

[Markarado]

If you're going to go with that line of thinking (which I would say isn't so far off) wouldn't it be possible that God did this through the method this researcher is talking about? As they say.... God works in mysterious ways!

[Narrock]

yeah, and probably by some priest who didnt have any little boys handy

Yeah because there were so many Catholic priests in rural Cameroon in the 1950's.

[Muglack]

Yeah because there were so many Catholic priests in rural Cameroon in the 1950's.

Yah idiot it's not like the Catholic church constantly sends people all around the world, especially to the poorest countries, to try and spread their doctrine to the "savages".


As a side note, if you want a good laugh wait till someone comes to your door or calls and asks you to support the AIDs walk and tell them that you can't in good conscience support it. Then when they ask you why tell them that you believe AIDs was put on Earth by God in an attempt to wipe out sexual deviants and homosexuals and by supporting AIDs research you are doing Satan's work.

[Zanchief]

God created AIDS to kill the gays.

[KILL]

yeah, and probably by some priest who didnt have any little boys handy

Yeah because there were so many Catholic priests in rural Cameroon in the 1950's.

hay smart guy, i think your sarcasm detector is fuxored

[Lyion]

Scientists accidently created AIDS which kills the gays.

fixed

[Narrock]

Yeah because there were so many Catholic priests in rural Cameroon in the 1950's.

Yah idiot it's not like the Catholic church constantly sends people all around the world, especially to the poorest countries, to try and spread their doctrine to the "savages".


As a side note, if you want a good laugh wait till someone comes to your door or calls and asks you to support the AIDs walk and tell them that you can't in good conscience support it. Then when they ask you why tell them that you believe AIDs was put on Earth by God in an attempt to wipe out sexual deviants and homosexuals and by supporting AIDs research you are doing Satan's work.

In other words... you really don't know anything about me. How completely typical of your ilk.

[Zanchief]

Can I be part of an ilk?

[Narrock]

Can I be part of an ilk?

You are, Zanchief... you are.

[Phlegm]

Fucking people. Didn't you guys read the article? The AIDS epidemic is the fault of Tarzan's carnal love for Cheetah.

[Narrock]

No, it was because priests couldn't find any altar boys to sodomize so they had to resort to having sex with monkeys. Everybody knows that.

[Muglack]

In other words... you really don't know anything about me. How completely typical of your ilk.

I like how you take my post in this thread as a personal attack when really all I was pointing out was that there missionaries that were probably in Cameroon in the 50's (something you probably didn't think of), but at the same time ignore entire posts that you can't defend against where I ACTUALLY attack you.

[Tikker]

You sound shocked Muglack

You really should know mindia better by now

[Muglack]

It's like a little kid that keeps doing something over and over again (like touching a hot element) you think "He can't do it again..." then he does. And everytime you think "He must have learned his lesson by now, there's no way in hell he'll touch it again!" then BAM one more time.