[r9etb]

while it is widely accepted that people probably caught the virus from chimps — probably by hunting and eating them —

Not unless these people are eating fresh-killed chimp sushi. I don't think the HIV virus would survive in a cold or cooked chimp.

More likely cause: being bitten by an infected chimp while trying to pull him out of a live trap.

[basil]

No--more likely cause: beastiality.

[Gladwin]

On C-Span a couple years ago, a writer was talking about his theory on the origin of HIV. During the early 1950s, chimpanzee kidneys were used to produce polio vaccine in Africa for Africans. His theory was that this would be a possible way for the virus to cross the species barrier.

I don't know if his theory panned out or not.

[SauronOfMordor]

More likely cause: being bitten by an infected chimp while trying to pull him out of a live trap.

Or, while butchering the chimp, getting its blood on a cut or open sore on the catcher's body

[crystalk]

Are you Kidding? Haven't you seen the papers about how badly female chimps throw their hindquarters at male humans they find attractive?

Do you seriously suppose that for the past 5 million years in Africa, all human males consistently turned this down? How about the last FIFTY years? Five, anyone?

[w1andsodidwe]

More likely cause: being bitten by an infected chimp while trying to pull him out of a live trap.

Never could understand this concept of getting it from chimps by being bitten, because we have always been assured that kindergarteners couldn't pass it by biting one another. I guess whatever is politically correct to say becomes the law in this disease. No matter, how it really got spread from chimps to humans.