She gets a new type of HIV from Gorilla

Gorillas have been found, for the first time, to be a source of HIV. Researchers have now discovered an HIV infection in a Cameroonian woman which is clearly linked to a gorilla strain.

HIV originated from a similar virus in chimpanzees called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). Although HIV/Aids was first recognised by scientists in the 1980s, it is thought to have first entered the human population early in the 20th Century in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The virus probably originally jumped into humans after people came into contact with infected bush meat.

Before moving to Paris, she had lived in a semi-urban area of Cameroon and had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, suggesting she caught the virus from someone else who was carrying the gorilla strain.

To continue reading at BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8175379.stm