Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
#0Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:52pm
Sorry, if this was already posted but I just read it and thought it was fascinating.
MSNBC Link
#1re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:55pmI read about this a while ago, when it was still a pending theory. It is fascinating, though.
#2re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 10:57pm
Oh, so it wasn't manufactered in a government lab as a way of population control?
Damn
#3re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 11:00pm
Wow. However, now that we know the origin, let's work more on finding a cure....
BroadwayChica--just what I was thinking :) (just kidding)
Arghh! Grammar pet peeve #1: your vs you're. "Your" is a possessive pronoun. "You're" is the contraction of "you are."
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#4re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 11:02pmI can't help but wonder if finding a cure with this new knowledge is now going to run into animal rights issues.
#5re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/25/06 at 11:05pm
Just a small correction for y'all:
"Cure" is the wrong term to be using. Once a person is infected with a virus, they cannot be cured. So what we're looking for is a vaccine to prevent people from contracting HIV in the first place.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Updated On: 5/25/06 at 11:05 PM
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
alterego
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/03
#6re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/26/06 at 3:37amIsn't this very old news, from about 10 years ago, if not longer?
#7re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:21am
No. It was always speculated, but it's only NOW been confirmed. So, yes, it is news.
All seriousness aside,
Way for science to do away with my "The Republicans did it!" theory. And I'm on YOUR side, science! Sheesh...
#8re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/26/06 at 10:00am
I don't know if I buy this story or not. If it indeed came from Africa, why did it become so prevalent in the past (according to them) 50 years? If it came from people either eating or being bitten by chimps, don't you think it would have happened before the 1950s? And maybe it did and we just now have been able to identify it.
I don't think AIDS is a Republican conspiracy, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to discover AIDS was indeed a government-engineered disease that was intended to keep the US as the main superpower in the world--which would partly explain the disease's rampage over Africa, China, and now India. Yes, I'm paranoid, and yes, I distrust the government on almost every point, but it wouldn't be the first time they used Americans as guinea pigs; just remember, duck and cover folks, duck and cover.
mint0621
Broadway Star Joined: 10/10/04
#9re: Scientists trace AIDS origin to wild chimps
Posted: 5/26/06 at 12:51pm
Just a little background, I am in public health grad school, and I take lots of epidemiology classes. And we study HIV/AIDS a lot. The big thing about this article is that it was well known that HIV came from Africa, and from primates...but now it's been narrowed down to chimpanzees from Cameroon, as the most likely source of HIV origins.
The HIV virus began to spread in the 1950's (as opposed to earlier time periods) because viruses mutate a lot. And for some reason, sometime in the 1950's, the virus mutated so that humans could catch it. Like avian flu, SARS and mad cow disease...at some point in time, a virus mutation occurred so that the viruses was able to be contagious to other species (cross-species contamination).
As for the conspiracy theory...I generally don't believe in them. HIV is just a tragic disease that needs to be eradicated. A few vaccines are in Phase III trials, so hopefully we will come up with a vaccine soon. A cure will hopefully be available in the future as well. It is important to find out as much about HIV as we can, in order to find a cure. The more we know about HIV, the more we can figure out how to eradicate it.
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