Scanning electron micrograph of HIV particles infecting a human T cell.WIKIMEDIA, NIH
A new “phylogeographic” analysis of HIV suggests that the virus first spread through Africa from the city of Kinshasa, now the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the 1920s, the city’s booming population, growing sex trade, and highly traveled railroads likely contributed to the transmission of HIV, according to a study published last week (October 3) in Science.
“We think the virus hit a ‘perfect storm’ of factors that helped it spread,” study coauthor Oliver Pybus of the University of Oxford told New Scientist. “From the virus’s point of view, it hit the jackpot.”
At that time, Kinshasa was part of the Belgian Congo and was known as Leopoldville. The Belgians built a railway system and brought male mine workers to the ...
