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Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
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The HIV/AIDS epidemic: its evolutionary implications for human ecology with special reference to the immune system

N Caldararo1

  • 1Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, CA 94132, USA.

The Science of the Total Environment
|November 22, 1996
PubMed

The epidemiology of AIDS in Africa is discussed. Serological and clinical data on virology and population genetics are related to current theories of heterosexual transmission and to cultural practices involving the exchange or transmission of body fluids between individuals, such as female and male genital mutilation and indigenous or 'folk' medicine, as well as non-Western medical uses of medical syringes. A review of the relationship of autoimmune conditions, graft-vs-host disease and the retrovirus/oncogene involvement is presented. These data place in a new perspective concepts of widespread heterosexual infection and transmission of HIVs as well as their relation to AIDS in the context of the evolution of the human immune system.

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