CARNAL NATION

A 62-year-old Cameroonian woman living in Paris has tested positive for a new strain of HIV that is related to a virus generally found in gorillas. Up until now, there have been three identified variations of HIV, all of which are believed to have been descended from a virus that infects chimpanzees and was originally transmitted to humans who ate infected meat.  The researchers who identified the new virus published their findings in the journal Nature Medicine today (subscription needed).

The researchers don't think that the patient was infected by another human, because "before coming to Paris the subject had lived in the semiurban area of Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, and reported no contact with apes or bush meat." It's unknown how common the gorilla-derived variant of HIV is, but Dr. David Robertson, a member of the research team, points out that the discovery "highlights how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one geographical location to another as has been dramatically evident with the recent emergence of swine flu."

Robertson also told the BBC that although the new virus is difficult to detect by conventional methods, it shouldn't present any new challenges for treatment. "There's no reason to believe this virus will present any new problems, as it were, that we don't already face."