In Virus Hunt, renowned virologist Dorothy H. Crawford takes us
inside one of the great research quests of our time--the search for
the origin of AIDS. From hospital intensive care wards to research
laboratories to the African rain forests, Crawford follows the
trail of the virus back to its roots deep in Africa. We track wild
monkeys and apes through the jungle--gathering their DNA via hair
and feces samples--to discover from which primates HIV first jumped
to our species, ultimately concluding that the most virulent
strain, HIV-1, came from chimpanzees in Cameroon. We then time
travel back to colonial Africa around the turn of the 20th century,
when the virus first spread to humans. But even the rapidly
mutating HIV could not survive in one person long enough to adapt
to our immune system. Crawford shows that it may have been given
the opportunity to adapt by being transmitted rapidly from one
person to the next through unsterile syringes, ironically used
during a campaign to wipe out disease by mass inoculation. The book
then moves to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), where Crawford describes
the unique series of social upheavals, starting in the 1920s, that
sparked epidemic levels of sexually transmitted diseases, allowed
HIV-1 to begin its exponential growth. And when in the 1960s chance
took the virus abroad to Haiti, from where it jumped to the United
States, its pandemic spread began. Crawford tells a gripping story
of brilliant scientific sleuthing, breakthrough discoveries, tragic
errors, stubborn intractable mysteries, generous collaborations,
and bitter disputes. And along the way, she conveys, with a light
and engaging touch, a wealth of interesting observations about
viruses, DNA, disease, immune systems, the very latest research
methods, and of course HIV.
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