[archaen]

Ummm, truekaiser, it says right there in the quoted story that hunters were normally exposed to SIVS by being bitten and scratched by a monkey. They then came back into town where the friendly UN vaccine was used on him; then another 200 people in succession with no sterilization procedures.

Well, if anyone wants to weaponize various viruses, we now have in theory a simple way to do it. Who wants to stick a couple thousand people with avian flu?

[The_Virginian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t would be a cruel irony if the introduction of antibiotics into Africa in the last years of the colonial period should be associated with the origins of the HIV pandemic"

[lotrfan55345]

Methamphetamine is a mutagen. So, sooner or later, this was bound to happen with some guy using a muagenic drug...

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', 'i') wonder who was dumb enough to stick the same needle himself that was put into a animal?

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', 'i') wonder who was dumb enough to stick the same needle himself that was put into a animal?

[RealityCheckBounced]

I don't really see this as too much of a concern. With three months to full blown AIDS they be too sick to screw in no time

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RealityCheckBounced', 'I') don't really see this as too much of a concern. With three months to full blown AIDS they be too sick to screw in no time

[Grimnir]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RealityCheckBounced', 'I') don't really see this as too much of a concern. With three months to full blown AIDS they be too sick to screw in no time

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grimnir', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RealityCheckBounced', 'I') don't really see this as too much of a concern. With three months to full blown AIDS they be too sick to screw in no time

[Falconoffury]

Look at this article.

http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,128 ... _tophead_1

It shows that the HIV virus can be easily reengineered. I think it begs the question of whether it was engineered in the first place.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

A new report presents three scenarios of how the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa could develop over the next 20 years. The report from UNAIDS says depending on what actions are taken today, up to 43-million HIV infections could be avoided by the year 2025
(Is Africa set to implode regardless of what any outside agency does?)
Almost 90 million people in Africa could be infected by the HIV virus by 2025, the UN has said.

[DomusAlbion]

V.S. Naipal, the Nobel Laureate, author and a man who traveled in and wrote many books about Africa was once ask in an interview about the future of Africa. His reply: "Africa has no future."
It may be that simple.

[BabyPeanut]

Does anyone have an historical example of a disease or plague bringing down a civilization, a society, a race, etc.?

[DomusAlbion]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'D')oes anyone have an historical example of a disease or plague bringing down a civilization, a society, a race, etc.?

[hoplite]

AIDS is a BEHAVIOURAL problem and it doesnt effect any statistically important numbers of heterosexuals in the West. There are far more devastating diseases to worry about- don't let the hysterical homosexual lobby convince you otherwise...
--let them eat cake--

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hoplite', 'A')IDS is a BEHAVIOURAL problem and it doesnt effect any statistically important numbers of heterosexuals in the West.

[JayHMorrison]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '9')0 million AIDS victims by 2025

[kpeavey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JayHMorrison', 'M')aybe we should stop trying to fight AIDS and just let it be to method of population reduction.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

although thats a really unpretty way of putting it I suppose it is true. (the left leaning political side of me has raised my hackles but ... whatever)

I guess it will be back to darwins view of things. the survivors are the ones who will inherit the earth. the rest are animal fodder. Those of us who can ban together and contribute, and actually build sustainable communities will withstand the test of time. I think this can happen almost anywhere, it will depend on the force of will each of us possesses.

OTOH, I hope it doesn't get that bad. part of me doesn't really think north american will get that bad. (with the exception of the low income areas in american cities)

[lorenzo]

This is truly amazing news!

Journals with the story:
Nature
Biology News
Journal of Medical Genetics

Biologists discover why 10% of Europeans are safe from HIV

Biologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered how the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. Scientists have known for some time that these individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-delta32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system but have been unable to account for the high levels of the gene in Scandinavia and relatively low levels in areas bordering the Mediterranean.

They have also been puzzled by the fact that HIV emerged only recently and could not have played a role in raising the frequency of the mutation to the high levels found in some Europeans today.

Professor Christopher Duncan and Dr Susan Scott from the University's School of Biological Sciences, whose research is published in the March edition of Journal of Medical Genetics, attribute the frequency of the CCR5-delta32 mutation to its protection from another deadly viral disease, acting over a sustained period in bygone historic times.

Some scientists have suggested this disease could have been smallpox or even bubonic plague but bubonic plague is a bacterial disease rather than a virus and is not blocked by the CCR5-delta32 mutation.

Professor Duncan commented: "The fact that the CCR5-delta32 mutation is restricted to Europe suggests that the plagues of the Middle Ages played a big part in raising the frequency of the mutation. These plagues were also confined to Europe, persisted for more than 300 years and had a 100% case mortality."

Around 1900, historians spread the idea that the plagues of Europe were not a directly infectious disease but were outbreaks of bubonic plague, overturning an accepted belief that had stood for 550 years. Professor Duncan and Dr Scott illustrated in their book, Return of the Black Death (2004, Wiley), that this idea was incorrect and the plagues of Europe (1347-1660) were in fact a continuing series of epidemics of a lethal, viral, haemorrhagic fever that used the CCR5 as an entry port into the immune system. Using computer modeling, they demonstrated how this disease provided the selection pressure that forced up the frequency of the mutation from 1 in 20,000 at the time of the Black Death to values today of 1 in 10.

Lethal, viral haemorrhagic fevers were recorded in the Nile valley from 1500 BC and were followed by the plagues of Mesopotamia (700-450BC), the plague of Athens (430BC), the plague of Justinian (AD541-700) and the plagues of the early Islamic empire (AD627-744). These continuing epidemics slowly raised the frequency from the original single mutation to about 1 in 20,000 in the 14th century simply by conferring protection from an otherwise certain death.

Professor Duncan added: "Haemorrhagic plague did not disappear after the Great Plague of London in 1665-66 but continued in Sweden, Copenhagen, Russia, Poland and Hungary until 1800. This maintenance of haemorrhagic plague provided continuing selection pressure on the CCR5-delta32 mutation and explains why it occurs today at its highest frequency in Scandinavia and Russia."

Source : Universty of Liverpool


What we now need is a passport indicating whether you are an immune European; so you know when you can enjoy sex without that annoying condom!