Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (693802)	7/25/2005 9:54:48 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769667

"HIV was a simian disease that vectored to humans." Yes. There have been many diseases that spread to humans through the practice of 'bush meat hunting'. Handling the blood of closely-related species is always a risk, as the more closely related the species, the more likely that organisms they harbor (which have adapted to that biological environment) may also find fertile biological ground in the human body. Anytime a disease vectors to a new biological environment, there is the possibility for massive outbreak... as the new host is unlikely to have developed the biological resistence to the disease that has developed over evolutionary periods of time in the original host. Chimps, for example, can contract and harbor HIV (in some native chimp populations up to 25% may harbor SIV) but neither SIV nor HIV are often likely to seriously damage their health --- they have evolved defenses against the infections. That is one reason why chimps have not proven to be very useful in medical research against AIDS --- they can harbor SIV/HIV without developing into the immune-supressed condition of AIDS.