Waar en hoe ontstond de hiv-pandemie?

Abstract

AIDS has first been described in homosexual men in the United States in 1981. Still, the oldest known case of hiv infection was a resident of Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) whose blood was taken in 1959 and kept frozen for several decades. The variability of hiv strains which circulate in the human population, has been used to estimate the likely date hiv was introduced in the human population. Thus it is thought that hiv entered the human population between 1890 and 1945. Two types of HIV do exist, HIV-1 and HIV-2. The former is found mainly in West Africa and its ancestor appears to be a lentivirus that infects the sooty mangabey. This primate has its habitat in West Africa. HIV-1 is by far the most common HIV type and appears to have originated from Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses of the chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes, whose habitat is situated in Central Africa. Transmission of viruses from primates to humans occurred most likely through the consumption of bush meat and contact of humans with blood of infected animals.