Source aids epidemic found in Belgian Congo

[Didymus 34,380]

 

The source of the worldwide aids epidemic is 1920's Kinshasa (in this year called Léopoldsville), the capital of what then was called Belgian Congo. That's the conclusion a team of British and Belgian scientists have reached.

 

The research was led by scientists of universities KU Leuven and Oxford. The goal was to map the source of the aids epidemic. "The timeframe had been generally known. We knew that it was somewhere in the first half of the 20th century. But the discussion remained about where exactly the virus found its source," says Philippe Lemey, virologist at the university in Leuven.

 

The researchers a--lysed mutations in the genetic code of the HIV-virus to reach their conclusions. By closely observing the mutations or changes in the gnome (the whole of hereditary information), they were able to set up a timeline for the history of the virus.

 

The HIV-virus appeared last century in a chimpanzee colony in the south of Cameroon. Ã¢â‚¬Å¾The hypothesis is that hunters have been in contact with the blood of chimpanzees and have, that way, contracted the virus,†Lemey claims. Afterwards these infected humans brought the virus to Kinshasa by boat across the river Sangha. There the virus spread via train.

 

 

"We estimate that the virus had stabilized in Kinshasa around 1920, which was evolving as the capital of Congo," Lemey says. In this city, baptized as Léopoldville in 1966, the circumstances were ideal for the virus. There was a rapid growth of population. The railway connections allowed big groups of people to be transported and there was a culture of loose s-xual contacts, resulting in a peak of s-xually transmitted diseases.

 

"A large group of the women living in Kinshasa were called "femmes libres". This refers to a kind of prostitution where women had a number of regular partners," Lemey says. Because of the stream of laborers there was an imbalance between men and women: there were twice as many men as there were women. This was very helpful for the s-x industry.

 

These ideal circumstances allowed the virus to survive in the population. "If it only had spread locally, away from the city, it might not have been nearly as successful. We know there were several related viruses which were transmitted from apes to men, but did not have a similar spread."

 

The virus circulated for decades in the region before it started to show up in the large cities of the U.S. around the 80's and began its global conquest. An interesting remark made by scientist Nuno Faria of Oxford University's Department of Zoology, shows that the social changes around the 1960's and the public health treatment initiatives against other diseases led to the unsafe use of needles which may also have contributed to turning HIV into a full-blown epidemic.

 

HIV was first identified in 1981, and the AIDS epidemic ballooned for more than a decade until antiretroviral d--gs were created. These long-term regiments have transformed HIV from a fatal disease into a chronic condition for many of those infected.

 

Source:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/11138067/Origin-of-Aids-pandemic-traced-to-Kinshasa-in-1920s.html (English)

 

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/wetenschap/1.2109328 (Dutch)

 

Other relevant sources:

 

http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/aids-timeline/ (Timeline of the aids epidemic since 1981)

 

http://www.avert.org/global-hiv-aids-epidemic.htm (General information and statistics on the global HIV/AIDS subject)

[Melech 9,900]

I swear our biology teacher told us that Aids comes from Chimpanzees and some hunters had s-x with them 

[Pandora 162]

 

NEVER thought it came from monkey's. 

[Mr Josh 3]

Saw this yesterday, damn this virus .

[Ursula Buffay 73]

 

NEVER thought it came from monkey's. 

 

I knew that monkeys screw us up so bad

[Antidote 95]

I already knew it came from monkeys, I read it somewhere, but interesting article

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Buy Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Blu Ray :derpga: