Tissue sample suggests HIV has been infecting humans for a century

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

Tissue samples from the fifties and sixties, taken from patients living in Kinshasa (then Leopoldville) in the Democratic Republic of Congo indicate that HIV, which was first recognized in the 1980's. Researchers were able to pluck chinks of viral DNA from the crudely preserved samples. Comparing the levels of genetic variation allowed them to give an estimate of HIV-1's year of origin: 1908.

This does not show us how HIV crossed from chimpanzees into humans, but it does give us a better idea of where to look for the disease's origins.

Keywords: viruses AIDS HIV