Clearance of HIV

[Patrick O'Neil]

On 14 Apr 1995, SusanD4739 wrote:

> 
> The tests had to be incorrect the first time, the just had to be.  That or
> it is clearly an act of Divine Intervention.
> 

Again with the religion?  You and I are riddled with retrovirus genomes 
from infections past.  The evolutionary common ancestor to both humans 
and chimpanzees obviously had a retroviral rider at some point because 
both we and chimps share the SAME retroviral insert in the same 
chromosome at the same relative location.  My point?  It is practically 
inevitable that at some point either a human with just the right 
combination of genes will have an immune system capable of defeating HIV 
OR since HIV is such a mutator, that a quiet form of the virus will hitch 
a ride in a host and, perhaps, become a permanent rider just like all the 
other viral genomic components that we carry.  
 
Up to 15% of mice genomes are made up of retroviral remnants and 
transposable elements (which I would argue are remnants of viruses past).

Was there so many thousands of divine interventions for our ancestors and 
all our brother animals?  No.  Just the crapshoot of genetic chance.

Patrick