Aids virus affecting people for more than 100 years, reveals study

THE Aids virus has been affecting people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study said yesterday.

Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a focused estimate at 1908.

Previously, scientists had estimated the origin at about 1930. Aids was not recognised formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the US.