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AIDS: HIV infects humans for over a century

The discovery of a virus sample from 1960 shows that the virus is found in humans there is more than a century.

A new study, published in the journal Nature, on the origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), responsible for the epidemic of AIDS, reveals that it emerged in humans between 1884 and 1924.

This work is based on comparison of two viral samples dating from 1959 and 1960. The first (ZR59) is the oldest human virus available today. The second (DRC60) comes from an extract of ganglion preserved in paraffin and recently discovered in the archives of the general hospital in Kinshasa (formerly Leopoldville), Democratic Republic of Congo.

An international team of scientists analyzed the genetic sequence of these strains and found many differences between the two since they differ by at least 12%. According to the researchers, that such variation is possible in the sixties, it is necessary that the virus has appeared in the human population at the beginning of the century and perhaps even before. Almost fifty years earlier than was previously accepted by the medical community.

Initially, HIV was responsible for small localized epidemics affecting the villages of the African rainforest. With colonization and urbanization in this region Kinshasa was one of the first towns founded in Central Africa in 1881 - it could spread much more easily.

Today, HIV affects 33 million people worldwide and killed at least 25 million since the disease was first described in 1981. The vast majority of patients are carriers of the strain identified on the samples of Kinshasa.