• Question: where did the very first hiv come from?

    Asked by tiyanaaaserenity to Katy on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      There are several types of HIV, the one which causes almost all disease now is called HIV-1. This came from chimpanzees, probably due to people in Africa co-existing with chimpanzees and eating chimp meat.
      HIV is related to a virus which is very common in monkeys in Africa, and chimps probably caught it from these monkeys, then passed it on to humans.

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