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Canadian researcher traces AIDS to single bush hunter from 1921
- Alex3917 15y agoSee also The River: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316372617/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316372617/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=... It seems like their theories are slightly different, but both involve vaccination programs as the cause of the epidemic.
- gjm11 15y agoIt sounds as if this one is nothing to do with vaccination, but with treatment of diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis and sleeping sickness.
- hristov 15y agoSo we finally found the guy that fucked the monkey that gave us aids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_DvlFJ-YQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_DvlFJ-YQ
- adrianbg 15y agoDownvote? This is the best comment here.
- adrianbg 15y agoOh no, not my comment too! You guys don't like Youtube? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkJXioTetwQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkJXioTetwQ
- backprojection 15y agoFind the corresponding thread in Reddit and post there.
- adrianbg 15y agoDo you know who I am?!?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- benrpeters 15y ago“Doctors and scientists can draw a lesson in prudence and humility from this,” he said. “When you manipulate nature in a way you don’t completely understand, the consequences can be unpredictable and absolutely disastrous.” -the law of unintended consequences
- backprojection 15y agoProblems are inevitable, problems are soluble. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQliI_WGaGk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQliI_WGaGk
- mgkimsal 15y ago"manipulating chimpanzee meat"? Is that a euphemism? What is meant by that?
- masklinn 15y ago> Is that a euphemism? No? Well the chimp-fucking hypothesis is possible, but it's unlikely. > What is meant by that? Exactly what was said. He might have contracted it by quartering a chimpanzee (and having chimpanzee blood wash over cuts or scrapes, thereby infecting it). Having cuts, scrapes or tears is pretty likely when you're in the forest fighting chimps.
- kitcar 15y agoMost likely chimpanzee meat was part of the diet of the bushmen; but in order to cook the meat, you need to get it off the chimpanzee - hence the manipulation part.
- breck 15y agoI'm pretty sure they just meant "handling".
- scotty79 15y agoQuick! Where's my time machine?
- sliverstorm 15y agoIf it happened once, odds are it could & would happen again.
- rdl 15y agoHIV got pretty lucky a few times; it's relatively difficult to contract, so if any of those steps had been disrupted long enough for people to learn about it, we might not have tens/hundreds of millions killed by it. Keeping it contained in Africa for a bit longer, getting rid of the infected plasma selling organization in Haiti, and a different initial population, might have made all the difference -- imagine if a monogamous/non-needle-sharing person got infected, disease ran its course with first-world medical facilities, and became a research curiosity.
- wanorris 15y agoIsn't it inherently unlikely for a disease contracted from wild chimpanzees to be contracted by someone with access to first-world medical facilities?
- rdl 15y agoDefinitely. I meant if there were a limited population of humans exposed to chimpanzees (in Africa), and maybe it crossed over and stayed in a pretty localized group. Then, in the lucky alternate universe, the first patient from outside being infected being a ~60 year old western/rich visiting professor who doesn't do drugs, and maybe doesn't even have sex with his wife, and is basically a closed system. Returns home HIV+ but doesn't spread it to any other humans before AIDS develops, he goes to a hospital (where there's already reasonable biosafety against blood-borne pathogens), and someone figures out there's a new virus in Africa which can only be contracted through relatively direct contact. Then, a few tens of millions of dollars of treatment (practicing better biosafety in Africa, letting US medical device manufacturers send needles/etc. paid for by the government, etc., would probably be enough to keep the whole thing contained, and maybe eventually eradicate it. Unfortunately that's not what happened.
- zyphlar 15y agoGreat but is this hacker news or just mini-reddit?
- zeteo 15y ago>When you manipulate nature in a way you don’t completely understand, the consequences can be unpredictable and absolutely disastrous How were those doctors in the 1920s "manipulating nature"? They were just trying to treat sick people in an undeveloped region. There are a lot of hospital-originating diseases even today (e.g. drug-resistant TB in Russia).
- grannyg00se 15y agoThe natural way to deal with sickness is to survive it or die. Creating a vaccine and injecting it into people's bloodstreams to try to gain an advantage over a virus' spread can be seen as manipulating nature. There is plenty of nature manipulation that goes on in the development and reproduction of a vaccine.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- grannyg00se 15y agoI doubt that as well. And in fact what he said was that "Doctors and scientists can draw a lesson in prudence and humility from this," which is not stupid at all. The program that he is linking to the initial outbreak wouldn't be the first vaccination program, surgery, antibiotic, or pain relief drug to cause harm.
- burgerbrain 15y agoThere is nothing "unnatural" about homo sapiens using tools to improve their condition.
- RailRoadHobo 15y agoFollowing that same train of thought, there's nothing unnatural about toxic waste dumps.
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- ubasu 15y agoNYT on the same: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18aids.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18aids.html?_r=2...
- lizhang 15y agoA bush hunter... is that a euphemism for something?
- rmc 15y agoNo, it describes someone who hunts wild animals in the bush. The bush is not a full jungle/rain forest, but more of light wooded bushy areas. Australia has "bush", just think of Crocodile Dundee. Africa also has bush, and some people hunt animals for food in there.
- cemregr 15y agoI thought HIV was the virus and AIDS was the condition, the article repeatedly says "AIDS virus"– am I mistaken?
- Zaak 15y agoSaying "AIDS virus" could be an example of metonymy.