PAGE took more than 33 million lives, and for its causative agent, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it has been impossible to find a vaccine so far.
Professor Jacques Pepin, an epidemiologist at Sherbrooke University in Canada, has been trying to find out the origins of HIV for decades, when he was a family doctor in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in the 1980s.
Previous studies have found immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in chimpanzees.
It first spread to humans in southeastern Cameroon in the early 20th century.
The simian immunodeficiency virus can be fatal to chimpanzees and is exactly the same as HIV, the only difference between the two is the host they prefer.
HIV is an example of zoonotic transmission, in which a pathogen can pass from one species to another, such as Covid-19, bird flu and chickenpox.
“The origin of AIDS”
In the first edition of his book, The Origin of AIDS, published in 2011, Dr. Pepin concluded that HIV probably infected a hunter in Cameroon in the early 20th century before spreading to Léopoldville, now known as Léopoldville. Kinshasa in the Congo.
Now, a revised version of this hypothesis has been published stating that “Patient Zero” was not a native hunter, but a starving World War I soldier forced to hunt chimpanzees for food when he was stranded in the remote forest of Moloundou, Cameroon in 1916. .
In an exclusive interview for MailOnline, Professor Pepin reveals how colonialism, hunger and prostitution have contributed to the creation of the AIDS epidemic.
“During World War I, Germany had a number of colonies in Africa and Allied forces decided to invade these colonies, one of which was Cameroon,” said Professor Pepin.
“Cameroon was invaded by British, Belgian and French soldiers from five directions”
On one of the invasion routes, 1,600 soldiers ventured from Léopoldville on the Congo River and its tributary, the Sanger River, before reaching the final destination in Cameroon on foot.
This path took them to the remote town of Moloundou, the location of previous studies that was the site of the first HIV infection.
“The soldiers spent three or four months in Moloundou before moving on.
When they were there, the main problem was not the enemy’s bullets, but hunger “, said Professor Pepin.
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