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Friday, October 03, 2014

Interesting look at the origins of HIV

How AIDS first spread: Journey into night -- The early history of HIV has now been charted in detail

HIV/AIDS Origins Traced to Kinshasa
A new study finds that HIV/AIDS originated in the 1920s in the central African city of Kinshasa, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Researchers say "a perfect storm" of factors "primed the HIV pandemic," including rail and river transport in 1960s Congo, a booming sex trade and the use of unsterilized needles in health clinics.

The international research team traced HIV's genetic history using archived samples of the virus's genetic code.

HIV was first recognized in the 1980s. Worldwide, some 75 million people have been infected with it. Around 36 million of them have died.

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