Dr. Myers begins his lecture by explaining the history of AIDS. AIDS first appeared as an identifiable retrovirus in 1981 in the United States. The virus that causes it, HIV, was isolated in 1983. Dr. Myers' group and others began tracking the gene sequence in 1986. They found that a child diagnosed with hepitatis in 1969 actually had the AIDS virus. They also discovered that AIDS had two forms, HIV1 and HIV2. These two viruses share only 40 percent genetic make-up. Dr. Myers tracked the genetics of HIV1 and HIV2 from the United States back to Africa and found that the viral variation occurred between 1978 and 1986. During tracking the group took multiple samples from the same individual and then from different individuals, all in the United States, and a third group of individuals outside the United States, mostly in Africa. In the future, Dr. Myers expects to find an HIV3 virus.
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