Chimpanzees Infected With SIV Do Develop And Die From AIDS, Contrary To Prevailing View

Chimpanzees Infected With SIV Do Develop And Die From AIDS, Contrary To Prevailing View

www.sciencedaily.com

Although the AIDS virus (HIV-1) entered the human population through chimpanzees, scientists have long believed that chimpanzees don't develop AIDS. But a new study from an international team, including University of Minnesota professors Anne Pusey and Michael Wilson, shows that chimpanzees infected with SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus), the precursor to HIV-1, do contract and die from AIDS. The discovery is published in the July 23 issue of Nature.

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Its a pretty long article and worth the read,

he authors report that infected chimpanzees in their study group were 10-16 times more likely to die than those who were uninfected. The team also found that infected females were less likely to give birth and infants born to infected mothers were unlikely to survive. The virus, they learned, was transmitted sexually and through mother's milk. Over the nine-year study period, 10-20 percent of the 94 chimpanzees were infected at any one time

So new studys suggest that it can be passed on through the milk as well as sexually, goes to show that they aint all that different from us at all

www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)