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Scientists push estimated origin of HIV back to around 1908THE
The (Tacoma) News Tribune ^ | 10/2/08

Posted on 10/02/2008 1:56:04 PM PDT by llevrok

AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests. Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.

Previously, scientists had estimated the origin at around 1930. AIDS wasn’t recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States.

The new result is “not a monumental shift, but it means the virus was circulating under our radar even longer than we knew,” says Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, an author of the new work.

The results appear in today’s issue of the journal Nature. Researchers note that the newly calculated dates fall during the rise of cities in Africa, and they suggest urban development might have promoted HIV’s initial establishment and early spread.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aids; health
Were there male flight attendents back then?
1 posted on 10/02/2008 1:56:04 PM PDT by llevrok
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To: llevrok

I didn’t know that the CIA invented HIV that long ago:)


2 posted on 10/02/2008 1:57:45 PM PDT by Post Toasties (It's not a smear if it's true.)
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To: Post Toasties

Push it back a few more decades and they can blame the US Confederacy for inventing AIDS.


3 posted on 10/02/2008 1:58:43 PM PDT by Post Toasties (It's not a smear if it's true.)
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To: llevrok

GROVER CLEVELAND’S FAULT.


4 posted on 10/02/2008 1:59:57 PM PDT by Question Liberal Authority (Don't call us, Barry. We'll call you.)
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To: llevrok
I knew it - it was William Howard Taft invented AIDs.
5 posted on 10/02/2008 2:00:19 PM PDT by skeeter
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To: Post Toasties
I didn’t know that the CIA invented HIV that long ago:)

Well, there was a Republican President in 1908.

6 posted on 10/02/2008 2:00:35 PM PDT by Corin Stormhands (LET'S HAVE A BONFIRE WITH THE VANITIES!!!)
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To: llevrok

Another theory -

the human genome is getting “weaker”

and our bodies are not able to keep these previously harmless viruses at bay.


7 posted on 10/02/2008 2:02:21 PM PDT by MrB (0bama supporters: What's the attraction? The Marxism or the Infanticide?)
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To: llevrok

Must’ve been about the same time George Bush’s grandparents were planning the 9/11 attacks.


8 posted on 10/02/2008 2:03:08 PM PDT by Dallas59 (Just Say NObama!)
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To: llevrok

Blame it on those uppity monkeys who moved to the cities.


9 posted on 10/02/2008 2:03:13 PM PDT by itsthejourney (Sarah-cuda IS the right reason)
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To: MrB

More than likely the date being given is based on a genetic analysis of the retro-virus. That & they are comparing preserved tissue samples with those taken recently to get a clue.


10 posted on 10/02/2008 2:05:44 PM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
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To: llevrok

So what?!?

It is still primarily an STD with intraveinous drug use a strong second for transmission.

Actions have consequences.


11 posted on 10/02/2008 2:05:58 PM PDT by petro45acp (NO good endeavor survives an excess of "adult supervision" (read bureaucracy)!)
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To: llevrok
"AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years,..."

AIDS virus has been circulating among people homos for about 100 years,...

There, I fixed it.

12 posted on 10/02/2008 2:06:34 PM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: llevrok; Mother Abigail; Gabz

Interesting. There was different article about this a day or two ago.


13 posted on 10/02/2008 2:07:44 PM PDT by Judith Anne
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To: itsthejourney
Blame it on those uppity monkeys who moved to the cities.

Easy now. Let's not blame macaccas and open that conversation up again...

14 posted on 10/02/2008 2:08:07 PM PDT by llevrok (Feral Conservative)
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To: itsthejourney

Post of the day.


15 posted on 10/02/2008 2:08:21 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded (We won't ever free our guns but be sure we'll let them triggers go....)
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To: llevrok

Not possible.

We all know nobody had AIDS until Reagan was elected.
And we all know the cure came when Clinton was elected.
And we all know that gay bath houses did not spread AIDS at all. Not a single case.


16 posted on 10/02/2008 2:12:39 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: petro45acp
Actions have consequences.

And there's a whole political party dedicated to making those who act responsibly pay for those consequences.

17 posted on 10/02/2008 2:12:45 PM PDT by MrB (0bama supporters: What's the attraction? The Marxism or the Infanticide?)
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To: llevrok

When did the first science experiments to CREATE AIDS begin? < /Pastor Wright bigoted barking moonbat >


18 posted on 10/02/2008 2:12:49 PM PDT by weegee (Obama's a uniter?"I want you to argue with them (friends,neighbors,Republicans) & get in their face")
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To: Names Ash Housewares

If only Reagan had spent a trillion dollars on AIDS back in the 1980s, this could all have been avoided. Of course, we STILL don’t have a cure and the sex positive agenda says that it is unhealthy to insist that people not act on their homosexual desires or hold to monogamous relationships or use condoms when pregnancy is not a factor...


19 posted on 10/02/2008 2:15:09 PM PDT by weegee (Obama's a uniter?"I want you to argue with them (friends,neighbors,Republicans) & get in their face")
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To: llevrok
I wouldn't be surprised if they found out it has been around for thousands of years.
20 posted on 10/02/2008 2:15:20 PM PDT by chaos_5
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To: llevrok

“Were there male flight attendents back then?”

Yes, two were with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk..lol


21 posted on 10/02/2008 2:19:47 PM PDT by Sybeck1 (My only question is will the tent cities have Wi-Fi?)
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To: Tallguy

Doesn’t molecular dating assume a contant rate of change, though? Which, if true, might not be a good assumption to make when daing a virus?


22 posted on 10/02/2008 2:20:13 PM PDT by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: llevrok

I know how this could have stayed contained in the black cities for a long while.

Just read Alan Paton’s, “Too Late the Malethrope”, a novel which talks about how if a white guy had sex with a black then the white guy would spend two years in prison and his whole extended family socially decimated. This was right after WWII.


23 posted on 10/02/2008 2:35:35 PM PDT by prolifefirst
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To: mewzilla
Doesn’t molecular dating assume a contant rate of change, though?

I would be worried about that too. I know that research into the Human Genome has yielded all kinds of information about human migrations. Some of it surprising, but a lot of it supported by other disciplines (archeology, for instance). But humans are a complex organism. It would seem like a fruit fly or a virus would mutate quite suddenly & with varying frequency due to environmental factors.

That's why I mentioned comparative tests using preserved tissue samples. They've been going back & studying the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1919, for instance. They could be doing something similar here.

24 posted on 10/02/2008 2:53:21 PM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
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To: MrB

What would make our genome weaker?


25 posted on 10/02/2008 3:04:06 PM PDT by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: prolifefirst

Isn’t that “Too Late the Phalerope”?


26 posted on 10/02/2008 3:13:37 PM PDT by Walrus (Those who work should eat better than those who do not)
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To: Walrus

That’s it.

Did you read it? What did you think?


27 posted on 10/02/2008 3:41:20 PM PDT by prolifefirst
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To: Tallguy
There was an Japanese island that in the population had a constant rate of death due to immune deficiency disease, later found to be AIDS. This island and population was isolated and the disease documented since before WWII. Another study found tissue samples taken from a man that died in the 1950’s that identified the cause of death in the early 1990’s to be of AIDS...The virus has been around but the perfect storm of the Gay coming out in the early 1970’s, the bathhouses of San Francisco, and an angry male flight attendant increased the number of cases dramatically.
28 posted on 10/02/2008 5:42:46 PM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: tbw2

Would you agree that poodles are weaker animals than wolves?
That perhaps St Bernards are more prone to some diseases than the diverse gene pool from which they were bred?

Same deal with humans. Breeding, genetic drift, number of generations away from the perfect creation of man and the fall - and despite what evos try to tell you, beneficial information is NOT added to the genome as generations go by, information is LOST.


29 posted on 10/03/2008 5:16:00 AM PDT by MrB (0bama supporters: What's the attraction? The Marxism or the Infanticide?)
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