ONE of the biggest mysteries of HIV is why the virus spreads so readily via heterosexual sex in Africa, but not elsewhere. A study in monkeys suggests parasitic worms may be to blame.
Evan Secor of the and his colleagues infected macaques with , parasitic worms that infect millions of people in Africa each year. Infected and uninfected macaques were injected with simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) via the rectum. Only about 1/20th the amount of virus was needed to cause SHIV infection in monkeys with worms compared with those without the parasite (PLoS…
