

Aids: Origin of pandemic 'was 1920s Kinshasa' - disbelief
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29442642

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ajarmst
This is hardly news. The origin locale and timeframe (acquired zoonotically
from Chimpanzees north of Kinshasa, probably around 1908, travelling by river
to Kinshasa and Brazzaville, where social conditions permitted amplification
and adaptation to human hosts) have been strongly supported by evidence for
about a decade. David Quammen discusses it in detail in his book "Spillover".
While this study adds more evidence supporting the theory, that area and
timeframe was pretty much accepted as fact in the research community for some
time.

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k-mcgrady
It's news for those of us not in the AIDS research community.

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jacquesm
That book is very widely spread outside of the AIDS research community, and is
only peripherally about AIDS/HIV. Even lay-people are reading it in droves.
Definitely a good read if you have the time.

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k-mcgrady
Thanks, I'll check it out.

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omonra
I'd recommend The Origins of Aids - it's a great book (wrote for the laymen)
that explores this very topic.

Fascinating read - published a few years ago.

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rafaelm
Radiolab did a pretty interesting episode [1] regarding investigation in to
Patient Zero. They talk about Typhoid Mary and Aids. I highly recommend it.
[1]-[http://www.radiolab.org/story/169879-patient-
zero/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/169879-patient-zero/)

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kretor
A Kinshasa origin around 1900 was already suggested in 2008:

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9525342...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95253422)

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waterfowl
it's real strange to me that the BBC says "Aids" and not "AIDS" when it's an
acronym. Still interesting.

edit: especially when they say HIV and not Hiv

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feynmanistheman
The Brits seem to do it for acronyms you pronounce, i.e. Fifa or Aids, but not
the ones you spell out like HIV.

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chriswarbo
> acronyms you pronounce

> the ones you spell out

If you're looking to distinguish these, you can use the term "initialism" for
the latter.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Nomenclature](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym#Nomenclature)

~~~
feynmanistheman
Ah! Thanks, I knew there was a word for it.

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kazinator
> _roaring sex trade_

Possible allusion to:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties)

~~~
x201s
Roaring Twenties comes from standard use of the word roaring in British
English
[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/roaring](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/roaring)

