Submission + - Researchers hope to protect against another HIV-like outbreak (washington.edu)
vinces99 writes: Throughout Asia, humans and monkeys live side-by-side in many urban areas. An international research team has been examining transmission of a virus from monkeys to humans in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated countries.The scientists have found that some people in these urban areas are concurrently infected with multiple strains of simian foamy virus, including recombinant strains — those from more than one source — originally detected in the monkeys. Asian rhesus macaques are very responsive to change, researchers say, and unlike many other species of primates they will continue thriving in human-altered habitats. Simian foamy viruses, which are ubiquitous in nonhuman primates, are retroviruses that exhibit high levels of mutation and recombination – a potentially explosive combination. By analyzing what is happening at the human-primate interface, the researchers hope to protect humans from another deadly outbreak similar to HIV.