AEGiS-BKREV: Viral Sex: The Nature of AIDS

(BKREV) Viral Sex: The Nature of AIDS

Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. 260p., illus., bibliog., index. ISBN 0-19-509728-9. $27.50.
Jaap Goudsmit. 1997.

Here it is 1999 and researchers are reporting an HIV link to chimpanzees. The results of the research were published in the February 1, 1999 issue of Nature. The book, Viral Sex, by Jaap Goudsmit was published in 1997, telling us of a possible link. I t can only be hoped that the researchers who spoke of their research in February, 1999, give Goudsmit credit for bringing this to the attention of the research community.

HIV is not new to the world or the primate family. Simian Immunodeficiency virus (SIV) has long infected certain African apes and monkeys. The apes and monkeys experience no disease as a result of SIV, harmless to them but lethal to others such as human s. By accident or necessity, it appears that this virus has found a new host--humans--and has been renamed the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). We know what has happened, HIV has spread rapidly, first in the gay communities and then the drug communit ies, now into the straight communities.

Goudsmit, a leading AIDS researcher provides us with an illuminating insight on how the HIV virus has spread. Key to this insight is the concept of viral sex. "We learn that HIV not only produces offspring that are almost exact copies of the parents, as do most other viruses, but that it can also reproduce sexually, creating a recombinant population of variants. This viral sex has given HIV an edge in adapting to new hosts such as from apes and monkeys to humans. He presents alarming evidence that the ongoing destruction of the Western Equatorial rain forest has greatly enhanced the movement of the virus from ape to man through the encroachment of man on the rain forest and then coming in contact with the apes who have the SIV virus.

This is an extremely interesting book to read and one that all researchers should consider in their study of the HIV virus. We have made great strides in trying to control the virus but we still have a long way to go. This idea of viral sex and AIDS is one that should be taken seriously if we are to find a long term cure. This is a highly recommended book to read and should be in all academic and medical libraries. It will cause much discussion and may open new avenues of research.

Postscript: Todays news announcement has opened the way for new research.

Keywords: HIV Infections; Viruses

Copyright (c) 1999 - Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Reviews may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution , or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.
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Copyright © 1999 - The University of Illinois at Chicago. All materials in the journal are subject to copyright by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and may be reprinted or redistributed for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting, redistribution, or translation, address requests to H. Robert Malinowsky, University of Illinois at Chicago Library, PO Box 8198, Chicago, IL 60680 or electronically to hrm@uic.edu.

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