Rent The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest

Synopsis

The true origin of HIV/AIDS, from the New York Times best-selling science writer David Quammen.

The real story of AIDS—how it originated with a virus in a chimpanzee, jumped to one human, and then infected more than 60 million people—is very different from what most of us think we know. Recent research has revealed dark surprises and yielded a radically new scenario of how AIDS began and spread. First recounted in Spillover, which Walter Isaacson called "a frightening and fascinating masterpiece," The Chimp and the River is the true account of how an unnoticed chimpanzee infection became a human plague. With a new introduction by the author, David Quammen's hair-raising report tracks the virus from chimp populations in the jungles of southeastern Cameroon to laboratories across the globe, as he unravels the mysteries of when, where, and under what circumstances such a consequential "spillover" can happen. An audacious search for answers amid more than a century of data, The Chimp and the River tells the haunting tale of one of the most devastating pandemics of our time.

Extracted from Spillover by David Quammen, updated and with additional material.

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