Crossing the species barrier-viruses and the origins of AIDS in perspective

Abstract

In humans highly virulent viruses with short incubation periods and poor transmissibility, like the haemorrhagic fever viruses, are easily controlled by quarantine, but the greatest threat is posed by slow virus diseases, like AIDS and BSE, which can spread silently far and wide before sounding any alarms. It is of interest that one of the co-discoverers of HIV-1, warned of even more virulent infectious agents than HIV-1 which now threatened mankind. The greatest danger lies', he said, 'in non-conventional viruses that produce no immune reaction'. Could what is happening in British cattle today to cause BSE be happening in people tomorrow? It is inevitable that further epidemic and epizootics of new lethal viruses will occur in the future. It should be mandatory that all outbreaks of new major viral diseases should be thoroughly investigated, as soon as they are identified, in an attempt to ascertain the origin. The attitude that there is no importance in attempting to track down the origins of the AIDS epidemic will be held as highly irresponsible and unacceptable by the public.