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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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Chimps Can Get AIDS: Study

SIV-infected chimps have high death rate, low T-cell counts

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(Newser) – Scientists have found evidence that chimpanzees can be sickened by SIV, the non-human version of HIV, adding to the understanding of how HIV/AIDS developed, the AP reports. Scientists have long believed that while other primates can contract simian immunodeficiency virus, they are not affected by it. A 9-year study of Tanzanian chimps overturns that view and could shed new light on the human form.

"From an evolutionary and epidemiological point of view, these data can be regarded as a 'missing link' in the history of the HIV pandemic," said one researcher not involved with the study. The scientists found that chimps infected with SIV had death rates 10 to 16 times higher than their uninfected peers—and had low T-cell counts, just like humans with AIDS. The disease is now killing chimps at a high rate in the wild.

A Chimpanzee sits on a swing at Alipur zoo in Calcutta, India, Monday, June 29, 2009.
A Chimpanzee sits on a swing at Alipur zoo in Calcutta, India, Monday, June 29, 2009.   (AP Photo/Sucheta Das)
In this March 7, 2006, handout photo provided by Nature magazine, Chimp 099 is shown with her daughter in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.
In this March 7, 2006, handout photo provided by Nature magazine, Chimp 099 is shown with her daughter in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.   (AP Photo/Michael L. Wilson, Nature)
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From an evolutionary and epidemiological point of view, these data can be regarded as a 'missing link' in the history of the HIV pandemic.
- Dr. Daniel Douek, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

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mainlander
Jul 22, 09 5:06 PM CDT
What does this rant have to do with the article?
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Fondue
Jul 22, 09 5:44 PM CDT
Nothing as usual.
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Toon
Jul 22, 09 8:29 PM CDT
Perhaps if you don't want to be banned perhaps you should scale back on the insults and name calling. Yes freedom of speech allows you to say it but it also allows us to say how much we hate it. Newser's goal is to get as many eyes as possible on as many ads as possible and if you are too disruptive then they risk you driving away more people than you attract.
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Kookey90
Jul 23, 09 5:00 AM CDT
C-K, You really need to get a life; no one here reads more than one paragraph of jive in one seating. Good day.
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Deebles
Jul 22, 09 7:46 PM CDT
This article sheds some light on a very controversial theory about HIV and the polio vaccine. While just a theory that I have no argument for or against it is odd that the same scientists in former Leopold something made vaccine and decades later discovered the virus at the Pasteur Institute. And I just mean odd--not sinister odd--weird odd. Reply
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