New "Monkey" viruses jump into Humans

"Two new retroviruses - the type of virus which causes AIDS - have jumped from non-human primates to people, a new study reveals.

The study of blood samples from nearly a thousand bushmeat hunters or handlers in Cameroon showed that at least six viruses had crossed from monkeys to the people who were exposed to freshly caught bushmeat. And two of these viruses have never been seen before in humans.

The newly discovered human T-cell lymphotropic virus 3 (HTLV-3) and HTLV-4 are closely related to the known viruses, HTLV-1 and HTLV-2. These are implicated in cancers like leukaemia and can cause inflammatory or neurological diseases.

Retroviruses such as HTLV or HIV insert their genetic material into a host cell's DNA. The emergence of HIV is widely blamed on a primate retrovirus, SIV, jumping to humans. Previously, it was thought that the emergence of these viruses was limited by the rarity of successful cross-species transmission.

But the identification of two entirely new human retroviruses from one study, along with a previous discovery by the same group that simian foamy viruses can jump from monkeys to humans, may be ominous.

No fluke
"What's increasingly clear is that the hunting and butchering of non-human primates is associated with the transmission of retroviruses to humans," says Nathan Wolfe, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, US, who led the study.

He says the new results suggest the team's previous find of simian foamy viruses in bushmeat hunters was "not just a fluke". In the blood-screening study, 13 out of 930 people were found to be infected with simian retroviruses, and two with the new human strains.

The new findings are no surprise, agrees Martine Peeters at the retrovirus laboratory of the Institute of Research for Development in Montpelier, France. She and her colleagues, along with other groups, had described simian TLV-3 in primates in Cameroon in 2004 so the discovery of a human equivalent is not unexpected. Now scientists will look for the simian equivalent of HTLV-4.

HTLV-1 and -2 are not very pathogenic says Peeters, but about 1% of those infected may go on to develop leukaemia."

www.newscientist.com...

How many months or years will it take these new virus to infect the planet? Are these the "plagues" foretold in the book of Revelations?

I am not sure about revelations, But it defintly lends more creed to how Aids was really started rather then the US , putting down a certain group or Groups of people. I posted this in another AIDs Discussion on Here but it makes sense to post it here to.

A link to a Documentary I recently saw.

www.sundancechannel.com...

Quote from Sundance
-----------------------------

Startling in its thesis, compelling in its argument and chilling in its measured presentation, this award-winning documentary by Peter Chappell and Catherine Peix delves into the possible origins of AIDS in the jungles of Zaire (formerly the Belgian Congo). Investigating a theory detailed in journalist Edward Hooper's controversial book The River, THE ORIGINS OF AIDS looks into the possibility that the deadliest disease known to mankind came as a result of a risky, mass inoculation of an experimental polio vaccine during the late 1950s.

I also did a post about the origin of Aids and the "Mods" threw it to "political" discussion. If interested here is the link

politics.abovetopsecret.com...

I saw the same info on sundance and did some follow up research.

very good data, thanks for a second source...............DocH

[edit on 1-3-2005 by DrHoracid]