Did HIV Originate as a Result of Oral Poliovaccine Administration in Africa During the late 50s?

The origin of HIV-1 has always been very debated.The fact that in phylogenetic analyses the HIVsare not a monophyletic group, but rather clusterwith simian strains from different species alreadyshowed that these ‘human’ viruses were in fact simianviruses that crossed species barriers causingthe current AIDS pandemic (Sharp PM et al. AIDS1994;8:27). The closest simian relative to HIV-1 isthe chimpanzee virus (SIVcpz) (Peeters M et al.AIDS 1992;6:447), and to HIV-2 the sootymangabey virus (SIVsm). Extensive researchshowed indeed that most likely HIV-1 comes fromchimpanzees (Gao F et al. Nature 1999;397:436)and HIV-2 from sooty mangabeys (Hirsch VM et al.Nature 1989;339:389; Sharp PM et al. Biol Bull1999;196:338), but how? Several hypotheses exist,the most plausible of which is infection transmittedthrough slaughtering of monkeys and apes forbushmeat, called the ‘natural’ way.