Tracking AIDS

 Theories of the 'quasi-origins' of AIDS are slowly coming around to prove true. The main theory, that AIDS traveled from Africa to Haiti to the United States are showing genetic truths. National Geographic reports:

HIV went directly from Africa to Haiti, then spread to the United States and much of the rest of the world beginning around 1969, suggests an international team of researchers. The findings settle a key debate on the history and transmission route of the deadly virus, the scientists say.

When AIDS was officially recognized in 1981 in the U.S., for instance, the unusually high prevalence of the disease in Haitian immigrants fueled speculation that the Caribbean island was the source of the mysterious illness. Another theory held that the AIDS epidemic spread from the U.S. in the mid-1970s after Haiti became a popular destination for sex tourism.

Scientists led by Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, Tucson, tried to solve the puzzle by tracing back the family history of the virus subtype blamed for the epidemic in North America.

Although this news may not prove useful to an 'outsider' of AIDS at first glance, this has much genetic value behind it. It has been proven that a certain percent of the human population is immune to the HIV virus which triggers AIDS. If the spread of AIDS is genetically traced and these immune genes are identified, it could mean the end of AIDS as we know it.