Revealing new details about the origins of AIDS, scientists said on Monday half the lineages of the main type of human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1, originated in gorillas in Cameroon before infecting people, probably via bushmeat hunting.
HIV-1, which causes AIDS, is composed of four groups, each coming from a separate cross-species transmission of a simian version of the virus from apes to humans.
Previous research identified chimpanzees in southern Cameroon as the source of HIV-1 group M, which has infected more than 40 million people worldwide and triggered the AIDS pandemic, as well as the geographically limited group N, identified in only about 20 people.