Haiti brought HIV to U.S. in 1969: earlier than thought

William Atkins
Friday, 09 November 2007 20:22

Science - Health

HIV-1 is believed to have started in southern Cameroon, through chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes). HIV-2 is thought to have started in West Africa, through an Old World monkey called Sooty Mangabey (Cerocebus atys).

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The Worobey team tracked the genetic mutations of HIV, which identifies the process and pattern of individual viruses over a period of time. About 109 subtype B viruses have so far been tracked. The research team also used blood samples taken from five Haitian patients treated in Miami, Florida in the early 1980s, which are now known to have had AIDS. They also analyzed another 117 AIDS patients from around the world.

Those blood samples, when compared, showed that HIV arrived in the United States around 1969 (between 1966 and 1972).

The research performed by the Worobey team is the first study to actually find the time and method by which HIV came into the United States. The researchers state that the strain arriving in the United States from Haiti was the first HIV discovered and, today, is the dominant strain around the world.

They conclude in their abstract: “The emergence of the pandemic variant of subtype B was an important turning point in the history of AIDS, but its spread was likely driven by ecological rather than evolutionary factors. Our results suggest that HIV-1 circulated cryptically in the United States for  12 years before the recognition of AIDS in 1981.”

Womobey’s next goal is to track HIV further back in its history. By learning its history of genetic diversity, scientists will be better able to develop a vaccine against it.