Researchers Have Identified The Origin Of The AIDS Pandemic

Researchers Have Identified The Origin Of The AIDS Pandemic

"Research findings published in the latest issue of Science trace the origins of the outbreak to Kinshasa in the 1920s, where epidemiologists believe it emerged from a "perfect storm" of explosive population growth, a booming sex industry, burgeoning public transportation networks, and the use of unsterilized needles in health clinics."

For decades the virus remained local, expanding slowly across the Congo and neighboring countries, until that area started to interact more with the outside world.

Important note: 1920's Kinshasha did not represent the first appearance of the virus in the human population, but it represented the first opportunity for the condition to spread beyond isolated cases.