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Many simian
immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) closely related to HIV-1 or HIV-2 are
widespread in over 30 species of African primates. HIV-1 is like SIVcpz of
chimps. HIV-2 infects humans less severely than HIV-1. HIV-2 came from
western subSaharan Africa from Cercocebus atys, the sooty mangabey
and was found in 1986. Most human HIV-2 victims come from west Africa. More,
HIV-2, SIVSM and SIVMAC are almost the same. Read Gao et al., Nature 358 6
Aug 1992, 495-499. Since the discovery of HIV-1 and
HIV-2, surveys of nonhuman primate species show that SIVs are widespread in
a large number of African primate species. Thirty species with serological
evidence of SIV infection have already been identified, and in 27 this was
confirmed by partial or full-length genome sequencing, highlighting the
increasing complexity of phylogenetic relationships among primate
lentiviruses.
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