October 30, 2007

Scientists Unravel Haitian AIDS Origins

HIV may have come to the U.S. from Haiti, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (medicalnewstoday.com, 10/30).

Lead researcher Michael Worobey, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, analyzed blood samples from five people living with HIV-1 (group M, subtype B)—all of whom recently emigrated from Haiti. By comparing this data with that of 117 other positive people around the globe infected with the same strain of the virus, Worobey and his team were able to construct a genetic family tree.

The study suggests that the virus traveled from Africa to Haiti and entered the U.S. in 1969; according to the study, there is a 99.8 percent probability that this scenario is true. The likelihood of HIV traveling from Africa directly to the U.S. is nearly zero, according to Dr. Worobey.

“Haiti was the stepping stone the virus took when it left central Africa and started its sweep around the world. Once the virus got to the U.S., then it just moved explosively around the world,” says Worobey.