Did HIV and HTLV Originate in Africa

To the Editor.— It has been suggested that the worldwide epidemics of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) could have originated in Africa 1,2 and that HTLV-I was carried to the endemic region in southern Japan from Africa in the 16th century. 2 However, few serological studies of stored serum samples have been conducted to evaluate these suggestions. We conducted a study to determine whether antibodies to HIV-1 (anti-HIV-1) or HTLV-I (anti-HTLV-I) were present in Zambia before (in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979) and at the beginning (in 1981) of the recognized worldwide epidemics of these viruses. Study.— Three hundred forty-nine serum samples, stored at—20°C, were obtained from 226 apparently healthy villagers (from five rural villages located 500 km east of Lusaka; preinoculation samples in a hepatitis B vaccine trial in 1981) 3,4 and from 123 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who