Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Gene tests match virus in primates in Cameroon to first known human case
Updated: 11:06 a.m. PT May 25, 2006
WASHINGTON - Twenty-five years after the first AIDS cases emerged, scientists have confirmed that the HIV virus plaguing humans really did originate in wild chimpanzees, in a corner of Cameroon.
Solving the mystery of HIV?s ancestry was dirty work. Scientists employed trackers to plunge through dense jungle and collect the fresh feces of wild apes ? more than 1,300 samples in all.
Before that, it took seven years of research just to develop the testing methods to genetically trace the primate version of the virus in living wild chimps without hurting the endangered species.
Until now, ?no one was able to look. No one had the tools,? said Dr. Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She led the team of international researchers that reported the success in Friday?s edition of the journal Science.
?We?re 25 years into this pandemic,? Hahn said. ?We don?t have a cure. We don?t have a vaccine. But we know where it came from. At least we can make a check mark on one of those.?
