AIDS in Africa: The Silent Stalker

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS in Africa: The Silent Stalker

New York Times (12/27/98) P. 4-5
McNeil Jr., Donald

While the earliest confirmed case of HIV-1 infection occurred in 1959, researchers estimate that the virus first showed up in the late 1940s or early 1950s. However, the question scientists are trying to answer is why the disease took 20 years to start manifesting itself, ultimately hitting the homosexual and hemophiliac populations in the United States in the late 1970s. Many scientists believe that HIV first developed from the simian immunodeficiency virus, which has long infected green monkeys, mangebeys, and baboons in Africa. HIV-2 and HIV-O both bear similarities to SIV. Some assume that the virus jumped to humans through the consumption of monkeys or through monkey-bites. The virus may have infected human hosts where it then mutated into its current "killer" form. HIV probably first infected rural areas of Africa, slowly moving into the cities and around the world until it hit homosexual communities where conditions were sufficient for rapid transmission of the disease. At the same time, the virus was rapidly spreading through Africa, although several African nations denied there was a problem.

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