عنوان

Virus Hunt :

0199641145

9780199641147

dltt

Virus Hunt :

[Book]

The Search for the Origin of HIV /

Dorothy H. Crawford

First Edition

xi, 244 pages :

illustrations, maps ;

23 cm

Includes bibliographic references (p. 205-228) and index

The Puzzle of HIV-1 -- Tracing HIV to its Roots -- The Primate Connection -- From Rainforest to Research Laboratory -- Timing the Jump -- Vital First Steps -- The Epic Journey Begins -- Adapting to Humans -- The Challenge of Pandemics

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"AIDS was first described in 1981 and just under three years later the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was discovered. Confirming that HIV causes AIDS--now accepted by virtually all scientists--took rather longer. But where did HIV come from? When did it first infect us? How did it manage to spread so widely? That the virus had probably jumped from another species, a monkey or an ape, became apparent with the discovery of the first simian equivalents (SIVs) just a couple of years after human HIV. That the jump probably occurred in Africa also seemed likely from the pattern of its spread. But when, where, and how did this happen? In this book, Dorothy H. Crawford, herself a virologist, recounts how the puzzle was solved. Tracking down the origin of HIV was far from easy. It involved the use of modern biological methods such as evolutionary trees and molecular clocks to piece together the probable history of this virus, combined with field work to isolate and study viruses from wild populations of apes and monkeys. The path was littered with problems such as potential contamination of samples; the rapidity with which viruses can mutate; identifying the travels of probable early victims--all set against the changing political and social context of Africa, which very likely provided factors enabling the early spread of the virus. The resulting picture is complex and intriguing as scientists have unearthed a variety of SIVs and at least 11 separate jumps from simians to humans, each resulting in a different group of HIVs. However, only one of these caused the pandemic. Based on interviews with most of the key scientists involved, Crawford's account not only elucidates the background science, but gives us a keen sense of the excitement of this scientific quest, which has finally yielded answers."--Jacket

HIV (Viruses)-- Africa

HIV (Viruses)-- Research

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome-- etiology

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome-- history

HIV-- pathogenicity

Crawford, Dorothy H.

20131101023403.0

rda

[Book]

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