The Epidemic Emergence of HIV: What Novel Enabling Factors Were Involved?

Abstract

Humans acquired retroviruses from simians, mainly through bushmeat handling. All epidemically successful HIV groups started to spread in early 20th century, contrasting with the antiquity of T-cell lymphotropic viruses, implying that novel enabling factors were involved in HIV emergence. Here we review the Parenteral Serial Transmission and the Enhanced Heterosexual Transmission hypotheses for the adaptation and early spread of HIV. Epidemic start roughly coincides in time with peak genital ulcer disease in cities, suggesting a major role for sexual transmission. Only ill-adapted and rare HIV groups emerged after approximately 1950, when injections and transfusions attained their maximal levels, suggesting that if parenteral serial transmission was necessary for HIV adaptation, it had to be complemented by sexual transmission for HIV to reach epidemic potential.

Keywords: :

• Central Africa
• genital ulcer disease
• HIV
• male circumcision
• origin of HIV
• unsterile injections
• West Africa

Acknowledgements

The authors thank P Dandoy and R Storme (Afrika Archief, Federale Overheidsdients – Buitenlandse Zaken, Buitenlandse Handel en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking, Brussels, Belgium), E Camara (Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France) and A Pueyo (Institut de Médecine Tropicale du Service de Santé des Armées, Marseille, France) for their support throughout the years during our research in their respective Archives.

The authors are grateful to A Abecasis (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Portugal), T Avelar, A Buvé (Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde, Belgium), R Jorge Camacho (KU Leuven, Belgium), N Rodrigues Faria (University of Oxford, UK), P Havik (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Portugal), B Hewlett (Washington State University Vancouver, USA), P Lemey (KU Leuven, Belgium), M Temudo (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal), and M Worobey (The University of Arizona, USA) for enlightening discussions.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The research done by JD Sousa and A-M Vandamme in this study has been supported in part by grant G.0692.14, funded by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Flanders (FWO, http://www.fwo.be/en/), Belgium. While contributing to this study, V Müller was a Fellow of the Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science, part of Parmenides Foundation (www.parmenides-foundation.org/home/), Germany. He was supported by the grant GINOP-2.3.2–15–2016–00057 (Az evolúció fényében: elvek és megoldások). The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.