|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
HIV Infection Developed Around 1931 WASHINGTON (AFP) - Humans were first infected with the Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV) around 1931, according to a new study that appeared in the magazine Science. The new study, led by Professor Bette Korber of Los Alamos National Laboratory, was based on the theory that HIV evolves at a regular rhythm, and used a "molecular clock" analysis with the aid of supercomputers. The scientists looked at how long before HIV, the last common ancestor of the disease, the so-called "M group," had come into existence. "We estimated the date of the last common ancestor of the main group of HIV-1 to be 1931," said Korber, after results indicated the year most likely was between 1915 and 1941. The author worked with the assumption that the genes mutate at a constant rate over time. In a separate article, Professor David Hillis of the University of Texas at Austin said the virus might have been transmitted from ape to man at the turn of the century, remaining isolated in a tiny group of people until around 1930. "The virus may have jumped over to humans around 1930 and begun spreading immediately, or multiple strains may have been transmitted in the 1940s and 50s," Hillis wrote. He said that establishing the date of emergence of HIV was crucial "to elucidating how transmission occurred and to finding ways to prevent zoonotic transmission (transmission of animal diseases) to people in the future"
Newswires |
