Origins Of HIV Virus Traced Back To Congo Chimpanzees...

[Guest The Black Lodge]

DENVER, Feb. 8 - After a 15-year quest, scientists believe that they have finally tracked the origins of HIV to a troop of chimpanzees living in a remote corner of Cameroon, near the border of Gabon and the Congo Republic, in West Central Africa.

Researchers told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections here how they literally dug into decades- old piles of chimpanzee feces to find the earliest evidence of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that most closely resembles the earliest known human immunodeficiency viral sample.

That human sample dates to 1959. It was found in serum from a patient in Kinshasa, just down the river from where Paul Sharp, Ph.D., a professor of genetics at the University of Nottingham in England, believes the virus jumped from a chimpanzee to a human, probably in the 1930s.

"By the time the man in Kinshasa had HIV infection, there were probably thousands of people in the region with the disease," said Dr. Sharp.

The closest virus to HIV-1, the most common form of human infection, in the animal kingdom is SIVcpz that is found in a subspecies of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes troglodytes. Dr. Sharp and his colleagues tracked families of these chimpanzees in the isolated area of Cameroon, taking samples from dried mounds of feces and then performing molecular sequencing of the samples.

He said the techniques used were completely noninvasive. None of the chimpanzees had to be captured, shot, or injected for scientists to retrieve the biological specimens needed to connect the dots and lead to the location of the chimpanzee troop.

"These SIVcpz strains exhibit a local phylogeographic clustering, allowing us to trace the origins of the pandemic to distinct, geographic chimpanzee communities," Dr. Sharp said. "Thus, 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, the origins of this newly emerged disease have been elucidated."

"This study is really a remarkable achievement," said John Coffin, Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology at Tufts in Boston. "They have shown the way to settle one of the many issues in HIV research."

Dr. Sharp noted that finding the road map to the original reservoir of HIV meant untangling the phylogenetic web that includes more than 30 species of primates -- monkeys to chimpanzees.

[Gunslinger]

DENVER, Feb. 8 - After a 15-year quest, scientists believe that they have finally tracked the origins of HIV to a troop of chimpanzees living in a remote corner of Cameroon, near the border of Gabon and the Congo Republic, in West Central Africa.

Researchers told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections here how they literally dug into decades- old piles of chimpanzee feces to find the earliest evidence of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that most closely resembles the earliest known human immunodeficiency viral sample.

That human sample dates to 1959. It was found in serum from a patient in Kinshasa, just down the river from where Paul Sharp, Ph.D., a professor of genetics at the University of Nottingham in England, believes the virus jumped from a chimpanzee to a human, probably in the 1930s.

"By the time the man in Kinshasa had HIV infection, there were probably thousands of people in the region with the disease," said Dr. Sharp.

The closest virus to HIV-1, the most common form of human infection, in the animal kingdom is SIVcpz that is found in a subspecies of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes troglodytes. Dr. Sharp and his colleagues tracked families of these chimpanzees in the isolated area of Cameroon, taking samples from dried mounds of feces and then performing molecular sequencing of the samples.

He said the techniques used were completely noninvasive. None of the chimpanzees had to be captured, shot, or injected for scientists to retrieve the biological specimens needed to connect the dots and lead to the location of the chimpanzee troop.

"These SIVcpz strains exhibit a local phylogeographic clustering, allowing us to trace the origins of the pandemic to distinct, geographic chimpanzee communities," Dr. Sharp said. "Thus, 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, the origins of this newly emerged disease have been elucidated."

"This study is really a remarkable achievement," said John Coffin, Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology at Tufts in Boston. "They have shown the way to settle one of the many issues in HIV research."

Dr. Sharp noted that finding the road map to the original reservoir of HIV meant untangling the phylogenetic web that includes more than 30 species of primates -- monkeys to chimpanzees.

HIV originating in the jungle??? maybe a lab that the U.S. or some other country had set up in the jungle.A virus that inhibits its victim's ability to fight off other non-lethal diseases? Mother nature doesn't create things like that, only your fellow man.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

The tracing of the origin project is all well and good but what real benefit will it produce in devising a cure &/or preventive measure? In my view, that should have been the point of any project of this type and if they can't show how knowing all this is going to help then they've really done nothing but spend a lot of money and supported a bunch of forensic pathologists for a time.

I guess I'm a pessimist when it comes to a lot of stuff I see published on medical research since there are a lot of "studies" that generate information on which the researchers build careers but they don't necessarily accomplish anything for the good of mankind. In fact, every time I hear of a new "conclusion" based on such research, they always quote some researchers analysis of statistics from the study and I'm reminded of Benjamin Disraeli's most famous quote: There are three kinds of lies -- lies, damned lies and statistics.

[Guest The Black Lodge]

Simply reporting what I read guys, not offering my personal opinion on it.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

Simply reporting what I read guys, not offering my personal opinion on it.

Didn't mean to imply I was faulting you for the details of the story. Sorry if it seemed that way.

[Guest The Black Lodge]

Didn't mean to imply I was faulting you for the details of the story. Sorry if it seemed that way.

No problems buddy