"Get Your Retroviruses Off Me, You Damn Dirty Ape!"
HIV Origin Traced
(or... "Get Your Retroviruses Off Me, You Damn Dirty Ape!")*
Whether or not this gets any real attention in the media, this is pretty BIG news. The section I quote below in particular was interesting, and might explain part of the reason why HIV is so horrifically bad in Africa. Not only do African populations lack an immunity, but it has actually been getting spread through the population since (at least) 1959!
This is a good lead-in to Midgardsorm's genetic/epidemiological lesson for the day:
Q: Why is it generally a bad idea to eat critters that are closely related to humans?
A: Nasty diseases crossing over to your species and killing tens of millions!
Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps:
Gene tests match virus in primates in Cameroon to first known human case
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12966623/
"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."
And here is a BBC article that mentions that HIV may have been in human populations in Africa since the 1930s! Gah!
HIV origin 'found in wild chimps'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5012268.stm
* (or, or... teh ch1mpX0rs WTFPWNED humanity w/ A1Ds!!!11111)