The early spread and epidemic ignition of HIV-1 in human populations

• Authors: Arinaminpathy N, Baele G, Bedford T, Faria NR, Lemey P, Peeters M, Pepin J, Posada D, Pybus OG, Rambaut A, Sousa JD, Suchard MA, Tatem AJ, Ward MJ
• Publication Year: 2014
• Journal: Science
• Link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6205/56.abstract

Thirty years after the discovery of HIV-1, the early transmission, dissemination, and establishment of the virus in human populations remain unclear. Using statistical approaches applied to HIV-1 sequence data from central Africa, we show that from the 1920s Kinshasa (in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was the focus of early transmission and the source of pre-1960 pandemic viruses elsewhere.
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