Origin of HIV/AIDS and risk for ongoing zoonotic transmissions from nonhuman primates to humans

Abstract

Origin & history of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic HIV/AIDS ranks as one of the most important infectious diseases to have emerged in the past century and continues to be one of the most serious public health threats of the 21st cen‐ tury. AIDS was first recognized in the early 1980s and today, approximately 30 years later, more than 33 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and more than 25 million people have died from the disease. Similar to the majority of emerging infectious diseases, HIV/ AIDS is also of zoonotic origin and occurred when an established SIV switched from pri‐ mates into humans [1–3]. The closest simian relatives of HIV‐1 are SIVcpz in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and SIVgor in goril‐ las (Gorilla gorilla) from West Central Africa [4,5]. SIVsmm in sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) from West Africa are the closest relatives of HIV‐2 [6,7]. Although the exact conditions and circumstances of cross‐species transmis‐ sion of SIVs from primates to humans remain unknown, human exposure to blood or other secretions of infected primates, through hunting and butchering of primate bushmeat, represents the most plausible source for human infection. In addition, bites and other injuries caused by primates kept as pet animals can favor a possible viral transmission.