There are many – I daresay most – diseases that can’t be transmitted from ape to human. Until proven otherwise, I think we’re safe to assume that this is baboon-specific.
Bear in mind that Ebola’s nastier variants also causes necrosis of the genitals (and spontaneous abortion in pregnant women) so it’s not necessarily a symptom limited to this particular bug. Just happened to be the first thing I thought of when I read the article, so here it is. It’s also spread through sexual intercourse, among other fluid exchanges.
World Eater makes a very good point - a truly successful virus is one that adapts to its host, not one that kills the host before it can spread.
If I remember correctly Foamy … And I have no clue what the actually name of the virus is… I’ve heard it refered to as Simian Foamy Virus CAN be transmitted to humans.
Or at least I saw an elisa sample from human blood serum show positive while I was bugging someone to go to lunch with me.
Turns out it was from one of the men in Southeast Asia that calls wild monkeys out of the forest to take pictures with the tourists.
There is also case history that he has had… ehh sex with both male and female primates. So I’m not really sure if it would be sexually transmitted or transmitted by bites/clawings.
Given how human males… especially after consuming large amounts of liquor at frat parties will fuck anything (see the news story of the emu getting raped to death in Lousianna) I wouldn’t be surpised if humans were getting exposed to this pathogen.
As for it’s ability to infect humans. That depends on the receptors the virus uses to penetrate cells for infection. don’t hit me!
Depends on the amount of variation between the non human primate receptors and the human receptors the virus may be unable to infect humans.
Which isn’t to say confirmational mutations might not occure that will allow the virus to infect humans.
There’s some evidence to support that HIV might be an offshoot of a similar virus found in primates known as SIV(Simian Immunodefficiency Virus), but I’ve never seen anything that proves it.
I’m not sure what the big deal is here. There are plenty of already-in-circulation diseases which do lamentable things to human genitalia. Not that we need another one, but unless you routinely consort with non-human primates, I’d say you have nothing to worry about.
CDC did just release the info the other day that syphilis appears to be on the rise again, though. That’s probably a more pressing concern than some testivle-eating baboon bug. Just sayin’.
SIV and HIV are pretty damn similar. There is evidence to support that they both originated from the same source… However nobody has evidence supporting where, when or how HIV entered human population.