Researchers Trace HIV's Ancestry to Wild Chimps in Cameroon

[LiberalHeart]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Solving the mystery of HIV's ancestry was dirty work. But researchers now have confirmed that the human AIDS virus really did originate in wild chimpanzees -- in a corner of Cameroon.

Scientists have long known that captive chimps carry their own version of the AIDS virus, called SIV or simian immunodeficiency virus. But it was extraordinarily hard to find in wild chimpanzees, complicating efforts to pin down just how the virus could have made the jump from animal to man. Fitting that final piece of the puzzle required seven years of research just to develop tests to genetically trace the virus in living wild chimps without hurting the endangered species. Then trackers had to plunge through the dense forests of West Africa and scrape up fresh ape feces, more than 1,300 samples in all.

Much more:
http://wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4950870&nav=menu34_8

[Warpy]

1. Right, it was a rare disease passed through the butchery

of infected bush meat until the roads came.

Then an infected person not only infected his/her family in a closed village, s/he infected every person s/he had sexual contact with on that road. Since prostitution is a survival industry for women and their children there, that is where the world's worst problem with this disease will continue to be.

[MrModerate]

2. Frankly, I don't think it's prostitution that's the leading cause . . .

I think it's the practice of using anal sex as a birth control method -- increases the likelihood of transmission. Can't say I've studied the literature to develop a statistical appreciation, but reading between the lines, that's what it seems like to me.

[Bucky]

4. Problem with your theory: anal sex as a birth control won't prolifigate

Prostitution will spread the disease a lot faster and a lot further than hubbies going thru the back door to keep the kid count down. Frankly, I don't see much ancillary evidence that Africans are too interested in effective birth control methods.

The real spread of AIDS of course came from jetsetting "Patient Zero," the airline steward who was getting action on several continents in the 1970s. Most of the HIV cases in Africa are likely to come thru his and similar carrier lines, not thru the relatively narrow channel of people carelessly butchering monkey meat and then passing on the virus.

[MrModerate]

5. Anecdotally, African women ARE interested in keeping the kid count down.

Not surprising, after all.

Patient Zero (and his ilk) apparently launched the disease out of Africa. I'll tell ya -- if you want to spread a disease among human beings, sex is definitely the mode of choice.

[Olney Blue]

24. Sex is effective, but airborne transmission is much more so.

[nodehopper]

30. wait, are you saying AIDS can be transmitted as an airborne virus?

are you serious?

[Olney Blue]

32. No!!!! I was speaking in general terms about virus

transmission. HIV is NOT an airborne virus.

[nodehopper]

33. ok! I totally misunderstood.

[JackBeck]

6. The "Patient Zero" story was withdrawn many years ago.

Dr. Darrow repudiated his study, admitting its methods were flawed. Unfortunately, this "jetsetting" flight attendant still gets blamed for something he didn't do.

Some viruses do jump from animal to humans. It's called zoonosis and a modern day example of this would be the current attention being paid to the Bird Flu.

[Moloch]

34. It doesn't matter... Gaetan Dugas was a dispicable individual...

For knowing what he had was sexually transmitted and still having sex anyway. Fourty of the first 149 diganosed AIDS patients in the U.S. had sexual contact with Dugas or someone he had sex with.. While he certainly wasn't the only person spreading the disease, he certainly played a large part in it.

The major reasoning behind not wanting to tell about Dugas seems to be that it fosters homophobia. Well, he deserves every nasty thing ever written about him. Gay people can just as easily be sociopaths as straight people.

(Yes, I'm gay.)

[closeupready]

7. I don't understand what you mean.

when you say "anal sex as a birth control won't prolifigate". Can you explain?

Given the lack of openness with regard to sex practices which mark many cultures, it's not clear to me how researchers can be confident that the current statistics on HIV transmission give a fully accurate picture of how HIV is being transmitted.

[JackBeck]

8. Agreed.

Not to mention, anal sex is not the only means of transmission. Blood is the body fluid that HIV is more prominent. One would think that intravenous drug use would be more high risk behavior than anal sex.

[xchrom]

9. vaginal sex would do the trick.

if a woman is at all ''dry'' sex would create enough abrasions for the virus to enter the blood stream.

more -- in the early days of the disease -- it usually took repeated exposure to contract the disease -- in some cases it still can.

moreover the abrasions caused during ''dry'' sex can effect the man as well as the woman.

[Warpy]

13. Then you'd better read a little closer

because it's vaginal sex. Men don't care if they make prostitutes pregnant, or even if they give them a disease that will kill them.

Plus, the style of sex with prostitutes in Africa is pretty rough.

Plus, the transmission from men to women is much more efficient, although with rough sex, the male may have enough skin tearing that he'll get it just as easily.

[REP]

15. Additionally, There is a Practice Called "Dry Sex"

AIDS: The Agony of Africa
Part Five: Death and the Second Sex
By Mark Schoofs
December 1-7, 1999

Harare, Zimbabwe and Nigeri Village, Kenya -- Sipewe Mhakeni used herbs from the Mugugudhu tree. After grinding the stem and leaf, she would mix just a pinch of the sand-colored powder with water, wrap it in a bit of nylon stocking, and insert it into her vagina for 10 to 15 minutes. The herbs swell the soft tissues of the vagina, make it hot, and dry it out. That made sex "very painful," says Mhakeni. But, she adds, "Our African husbands enjoy sex with a dry vagina."

Many women concur that dry sex, as this practice is called, hurts. Yet it is common throughout southern Africa, where the AIDS epidemic is worse than anywhere in the world. Researchers conducting a study in Zimbabwe, where Mhakeni lives, had trouble finding a control group of women who did not engage in some form of the practice. Some women dry out their vaginas with mutendo wegudo -- soil with baboon urine -- that they obtain from traditional healers, while others use detergents, salt, cotton, or shredded newspaper. Research shows that dry sex causes vaginal lacerations and suppresses the vagina's natural bacteria, both of which increase the likelihood of HIV infection. And some AIDS workers believe the extra friction makes condoms tear more easily.

http://www.thebody.com/schoofs/africa5.html

[kath]

25. Ewww, sounds pretty awful.

Saddens me that women would subject themselves to such a painful practice or that husbands would demand it.
ICK.

[Toucano]

29. What a shame to defeat nature's natural protective adaptations

for such a silly reason.

I can't imagine how a "dry vagina" would be preferable to the body's normal responses.

[Moloch]

35. That's terrible :(

I was unaware that women were doing that. No wonder HIV is so prevalent in Africa.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

3. Hey Sailor!...

...a friend of mine that was president of the South Dakota Navy League always said the AIDS epidemic in the US came from the US Navy ports of call in West Africa. He said that over ten years ago.

[FogerRox]

10. How about AIDS came from a US bio lab. Whos funding was in a

1976 appropriations bill.

[ecoalex]

11. Naaa, an Army Biological Agent from Fort Dietrick Md.

[FogerRox]

14. there ya go......................

[Warpy]

17. Yeah, that 1976 funding did a great job on starting a disease

in 1930 with a documented death in the US in 1969.

[bitchkitty]

27. Actually, there was an earlier death in 1955

in a merchant sailor, I believe. They examined samples of his tissue years later and confirmed he had HIV. Read this somewhere, but don't remember where, sorry!

[Posteritatis]

37. 1959; I think that's the first definately known HIV death. (n/t)

[Warpy]

12. Either that or there really was a gay airline attendant on

transcontinental flights spreading it around from South Africa.

Your idea is more likely, although we'd expect more of a heterosexual spread from sailors. I do know there is a documented case in NC, a death in 1969 that was so baffling at the time that they kept a lot of tissue and blood samples preserved. The case was consclusively tied to HIV in the late 80s.

That's how a lot of modern plagues was spread, men away from home, women who were desperate to get enough money to feed their kids.

A system that keeps women poor and powerless may end up killing us all.

[JackBeck]

19. The "Patient Zero" story was retracted years ago.

The Doctor who came up with this theory admitted that his research was flawed. My hope is that more people would realize this and stop spreading this false theory that a gay flight attendant was the one who spread HIV all over the world.

[Warpy]

22. I thought my skepticism came through loud and clear

on this one. I didn't buy the story then and I don't buy it now. I find the maritime connection to be the most likely one.

That documented case in NC in 1969 pretty much torpedoed it.

However, what had been a rare disease was blown into an epidemic by the post Stonewall explosion of gays from heavy oppression to relative freedom in the big cities. It's obvious where the "patient zero" theory came from.

It's also obvious that when we look at Africa, we are seeing our future. HIV is a heterosexual disease there, and will become one here eventually.

[PassingFair]

31. Hey, prostitution EMPOWERS women!

:sarcasm:

[saigon68]

16. I didn't know the Bush Klan was involved?

[noonwitch]

18. I saw a documentary about experimental polio vaccines given in Africa

The pharmacuetical company may have used kidneys from infected monkeys to make the vaccine. I don't remember the name of the movie, it was on Sundance at some point in the last year. It was an interesting theory, at least.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JackBeck]

21. First off, AIDS is a diagnosis. HIV is a virus that can lead to an AIDS

diagnosis.

Secondly, the earliest case of HIV-1 was confirmed in 1959.

HIV uses CD4 cells in order to reproduce, which eventually kills the CD4 cell. If CD4 cells weren't discovered until the 1970's, how could a government develop a virus that specifically attacks an immune system cell in the 1950's, if no one knew of the existence of that cell?

[XemaSab]

23. Many third-world countries

have historically had very poor health precautions, like using one syringe on many patients or pooling blood from many people and re-injecting it into different donors.

We know that the disease can be transmitted by needles, but that doesn't mean it was the contents of the vaccine that spread the disease.

[mithnanthy]

26. noonwitch...

I also saw that documentary and it was VERY interesting. They used the natives as guinea pigs, with innoculations made in labs there. I never understand why something like this, is barely brought to the light of day....but then again, maybe I do.

[Toucano]

28. The movie was based on this book.

The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316372617/103-8892250-4671849?v=glance&n=283155

The movie is The Origins of AIDS (U.S. Title)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438938/

This new study supports the hypothesis in my opinion.

[stepnw1f]

36. I did not know the Bush family could be traced that far back in time?

What a breakthrough!!!?