Chimps not immune to HIV-like virus: Study

PARIS: Chimpanzees infected with the ape version of HIV can die of an AIDS-like disease, a finding that challenges conventional beliefs that chimps are immune to the virus, according to a study released yesterday.

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a pathogen circulating in African animal primates, is believed by many scientists to be a precursor of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

It may have leapt the species barrier to humans around a century ago, snowballing into the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has so far claimed tens of millions of lives.