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Viruses go back and forth between species. If pigs and chickens and humans have influenza, where did it come from? Did the pigs get it from the chickens? Did the chickens get it from the people? Who knows?

My guess: the species with the most strains has had it the longest. It will also be the most resistant.

There are probably other reasons to be resistant to HIV than CCR5-delta 32 deletion. It's very early days yet studying this disease, although tremendous progress has been made.

My husband was in pharmacology school when AIDS was first discovered and funding was being passed out to study it. Back then, it was widely believed that AIDS was limited to "the four H's" - Haitians, homosexuals, "hard" (intravenous) drug users, and hemophyliacs. And then there was the Duesberg theory, that HIV doesn't cause AIDS, that it's caused by certain lifestyles.

Indeed, the HIV virus causing AIDS in Africa is very different from the HIV virus in the US.