Serial Passage and The Origin of the AIDS Epidemics

Project with Ernest Drucker & Preston Marx

William H. Schneider received his Ph.D. in History and taught at the University of North Carolina before becoming Chair of History at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis where he is currently Professor of History, and Baker-Ort Chair in International Healthcare Philanthropy, and directs the Program in Medical Humanities and Health Studies.

Their project at the Brocher Foundation is a collaboration between a virologist, an epidemiologist and a historian to study the origin of the HIV viruses and AIDS in Africa. A large body of research has shown that the genetic precursors of HIV/AIDS are found in the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) of chimpanzees and monkeys in Central and West Africa. There is no agreement, however, about the means by which the SIVs, normally not a pathogen for humans, evolved into the HIV forms responsible for the AIDS pandemic. This project is investigating the “serial passage” theory to explain the origin of AIDS – that hypothesizes that the growth of unsterile injections and transfusions in Africa in the 1950s facilitated the crossover of simian viruses from human to human, enabling SIVs to mutate into HIVs. With the introduction of these new and generally beneficial Western medical techniques, injections and blood transfusions created a new means of transmitting blood borne viruses and related diseases between humans. Research suggests that as few as 3-4 serial passages could have produced human AIDS viruses responsible for the current epidemic. The three are using their stay at Brocher to work on a book that describes the science and history of the origins of AIDS. Schneider will stay longer to work on a book about the related subject of the history of blood transfusion in Africa.