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Published online 25 May 2006 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news060522-17
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HIV-like virus found in wild chimps
Discovery supports theory that human HIV pandemic came from African apes.
Scientists have spotted the signs of an HIV-like virus in chimpanzees in southern Cameroon, confirming the long-held suspicion that these animals are a natural reservoir for the virus in the wild.
The discovery bolsters the theory that the first people to contract HIV did so through contact with infected blood from wild chimps in the jungle, before eventually spreading the virus to nearby Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and onwards from there.
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