From ABC Science, 2 October 2008:
A preserved specimen of lymph node nearly half a century old has revealed how rapidly the HIV virus has diversified, according to international research.
A team of researchers from around the world has been trawling through decades-old tissue samples from African hospital archives in the hope of finding samples containing the HIV virus.
They struck it lucky with a sample that was collected back in 1960, from a woman living in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This is the second-oldest sample of the HIV virus ever found – the oldest is from 1959.
The researchers found that the HIV viral sequences these two samples differ significantly in their genetic makeup. Read more.
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freelance science journalist and author
Bianca Nogrady
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