How HIV began just af ter WWI

QUESTION Has HIV existed for more than a century?

In 2014, an international team led by scientists from Oxford University and the University of Leuven published an article in the journal Science explaining how the virus made the jump from apes to humans in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

HIV is a mutated version of a chimpanzee virus known as simian immunodeficiency virus. It is thought a mutated form made the species jump through the consumption or handling of infected bush meat.

HIV-1 group O affects tens of thousands of people in Cameroon, while HIV-1 group M has infected millions across the world.

The team used archived samples of group M’s genetic code to trace its source, with evidence pointing to the Twenties in Kinshasa city. The sex trade, rapid population growth and unsterilised needles in health clinics spread the virus.

HIV swept rapidly through the Belgian Congo from the Thirties to the Fifties. It was not recognised at the time because sufferers did not have specific symptoms.

HIV was first identified in 1983 and has infected more than 70 million people worldwide.

M. E. Singh, Birmingham.

QUESTION For a country with such a strong musical heritage, why is Ireland so under-represented in the classical canon?

THe previous answer mentioned the talents of composer Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 to 1924). As professor of music at Cambridge, he taught Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Frank Bridge, Samuel ColeridgeTaylor and Arthur Bliss.

Andrew Moorehouse, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion.