A vintage, grainy, black and white map of the Belgian Congo from the 1920s, with a single, ominous red dot glowing in the center, casting a faint, unsettling haze over the colonial-era borders.
A vintage, grainy, black and white map of the Belgian Congo from the 1920s, with a single, ominous red dot glowing in the center, casting a faint, unsettling haze over the colonial-era borders.

TIL scientists have been able to trace the start of HIV/AIDS to King Leopold's Belgian Congo, originating as far back as 1909. The first person to be infected probably got the virus in the 1920s

Recent research has traced the origins of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to Kinshasa (formerly Léopoldville), the capital of what was then the Belgian Congo, around 1920. Genetic analyses of HIV-1 group M, the strain responsible for the global pandemic, suggest that its common ancestor emerged in Kinshasa during this period.

The virus is believed to have crossed from chimpanzees to humans in southeastern Cameroon, likely through the handling or consumption of bushmeat. From there, it traveled south to Kinshasa, which was a major trade hub with extensive transport networks established during King Leopold's colonial rule, including railways and river routes. By the 1940s, over a million people were using Kinshasa's railways annually, facilitating the rapid dissemination of the virus.

The earliest confirmed case of HIV infection is from a blood sample taken in 1959 from a man in Kinshasa. This sample, known as ZR59, provides direct evidence of the virus's presence in humans at that time.

While the exact timing of the initial cross-species transmission remains uncertain, the combination of genetic analyses and historical records indicates that the HIV/AIDS pandemic began in the Belgian Congo in the early 20th century, with the first human infections likely occurring in the 1920s. The colonial infrastructure and trade networks established under King Leopold's rule played a crucial role in the virus's initial spread from remote areas to urban centers.

The prompt for this was: TIL scientists have been able to trace the start of HIV/AIDS to King Leopold’s Belgian Congo, originating as far back as 1909. The first person to be infected probably got the virus in the 1920s

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