Question
Did HIV really come from monkeys in Africa?
1 March 2006. Related: All topics.
Answer
HIV is a human virus that is closely related to a virus found in primates (chimpanzees, monkeys etc) called SIV.
Studies looking at how HIV has evolved have estimated that SIV passed from monkeys to humans about 80 years ago in the 1930s. SIV has been a virus in primates for thousands of years and doesn’t cause monkeys and chimps today any of the problems that HIV causes for humans
The most likely route for the virus to first infect humans would have been from human hunters coming into contact with the blood of the monkeys that they killed.
- A very detailed lecture titled ‘Where AIDS came from’ was presented by Paul Sharp at the 13th CROI conference in February, and the slides and this presentation can be seen online (first webcast for Tuesday 7 February).
Thank you for this. It really helped me out in my school report
OMG!! I didn’t know that HIV came from monkeys!! that is summit new in my life!! Wow!!