AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti in 1969: study

[Herman Munster]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2954500820071029?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.

Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed.

The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the United States for roughly 12 years before AIDS was first recognized by scientists as a disease in 1981. Many people had died by that point.

"It is somehow chilling to know it was probably circulating for so long under our noses," Worobey said in a telephone interview.

The researchers conducted a genetic analysis of stored blood samples from early AIDS patients to determine when the human immunodeficiency virus first entered the United States.

They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates, and then came to the United States in about 1969.

The researchers think an unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years -- first in the U.S. population and then to other nations.

It can take several years after infection for a person to develop AIDS, a disease that ravages the immune system.

[Basileus Basileon]

1. That's shockingly early.

Chilling, eh?

[MnFats]

2. i thought the 'patient zero' thing had been discarded....

but you are reading more up to date stuff so...

[Xithras]

3. Not incredibly surprising.

The oldest confirmed case dates back to the mid-50's, and testing of the disease itself indicates that it might have arisen as early as the 1930's. It only took one infected person to bring it over.

[MichaelHarris]

4. Don't know when it got here

but I know when it killed my little brother.

[rainbow4321]

5. I met a guy recently who has had it since 1978

but was given the diagnosis of leukemia at the time. Probably safe to say he was not alone in being "misdiagnosed" back then.