News Genetics

HIV came to NYC at least a decade before virus ID’d

DNA analysis of early viral strains tracks U.S. debut to early ’70s

HIV molecule

GOING VIRAL The HIV virus’s path to the United States went through the Caribbean, new genetic analysis shows. The virus (yellow, shown infecting a T cell, blue) hit American shores in about 1971, arriving in New York City first and then spreading across the country.

NIAID

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

A genetic study of HIV viruses from the 1970s may finally clear the name of a man long identified as the source of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.