Gorillas have been found, for the first time, to be a source of HIV. Previous research had shown the HIV-1 strain, the main source of human infections, with 33m cases worldwide, originated from a virus in chimpanzees. But researchers have now discovered an HIV infection in a Cameroonian woman which is clearly linked to a gorilla strain, Nature Medicine reports. A researcher told the BBC that, though it was a new type of HIV, current drugs might still help combat its effects. HIV originated from a similar virus in chimpanzees called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV). ‘ There’s no reason to believe this virus will present any new problems, as it were, that we don’t already face  Dr David Robertson researcher Although HIV/Aids was first recognised by scientists in the 1980s, it is thought to have first entered the human population early in the 20th Century in the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus probably originally jumped into humans after people came into contact with infected bush meat. SIV viruses have been reported in other primates, including gorillas. Unusual case French doctors treating the 62-year-old Cameroonian woman […]