17080_rel“Scientists studying biology and geography may seem worlds apart, but together they have answered a question that has defied explanation about the spread of the HIV-1 epidemic in Africa.

“Writing in the September issue of AIDS, a research team led by scientists at the University of Florida explained why two subtypes of HIV-1 — the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS — held steady at relatively low levels for more than 50 years in west central Africa before erupting as an epidemic in east Africa in the 1970s.”