Newly Discovered Archival Data Show Coincidence of a Peak of Sexually Transmitted Diseases with the Early Epicenter of Pandemic HIV-1

Viruses

Anne-Mieke Vandamme¹  João Dinis Sousa¹  Philip J. Havik²  Viktor Müller³ 

[1] Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium;Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal;Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1117 Budapest, Hungary;

关键词: HIV;    HIV-1;    origin of HIV;    zoonosis;    pandemics;    enhanced heterosexual transmission hypothesis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v13091701

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

To which extent STDs facilitated HIV-1 adaptation to humans, sparking the pandemic, is still unknown. We searched colonial medical records from 1906–1958 for Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, which was the initial epicenter of pandemic HIV-1, compiling counts of treated STD cases in both Africans and Europeans. Almost all Europeans were being treated, while for Africans, generalized treatment started only in 1929. Treated STD counts in Europeans thus reflect STD infection rates more accurately compared to counts in Africans. In Africans, the highest recorded STD treatment incidence was in 1929–1935, declining to low levels in the 1950s. In Europeans, the recorded treatment incidences were highest during the period 1910–1920, far exceeding those in Africans. Europeans were overwhelmingly male and had frequent sexual contact with African females. Consequently, high STD incidence among Europeans must have coincided with high prevalence and incidence in the city’s African population. The data strongly suggest the worst STD period was 1910–1920 for both Africans and Europeans, which coincides with the estimated origin of pandemic HIV-1. Given the strong effect of STD coinfections on HIV transmission, these new data support our hypothesis of a causal effect of STDs on the epidemic emergence of HIV-1.

【 授权许可】

Unknown