Article published at Veja Magazine, July 29

Different from what has been thought, chimpanzees yields to Aids

The thesis accepted until nowadays that chimpanzees, the closest human relatives, do not develop diseases when they are infected by virus HIV has been denied. In fact they get ill and present similar symptoms to humans who have Aids. The breakthrough was announced last week by a research team of AlabamaUniversity, in Birmingham, United States. The team monitored 95 chimpanzees for nine years in their habitat by analyzing their excrement.

When they studied the body of dead animals, the scientists also proved that the virus destroys cells in their organism, just like it does in the human body. The comparison between the virus that cause Aids in chimpanzees and humans can lead to new discoveries about the reaction of the immunologic system in both species. “We are going to study how the virus affects their two hosts in order to better understand its action”, told the magazine biologist Rebecca Rudicell, co-author of the work.

Read more (in Portuguese):
http://veja.abril.com.br/290709/letal-tambem-para-chimpanzes-p-112.shtml