Researchers have discovered an HIV infection in a Cameroonian woman which is clearly linked to a gorilla strain as against the previous research that showed the HIV, the main source of human infections, originated from a virus in chimpanzees, according to media reports Monday.

HIV originated from a similar virus in chimpanzees called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) which have been reported in other primates, including gorillas.

A mountain gorilla, a member of the Mubare gorilla group, searches for food in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda July 2, 2009. [Xinhua/Reuters]

French doctors treating the 62-year-old Cameroonian woman who was living in Paris said her case showed the infection was more closely related to SIV from gorillas than HIV from humans, Nature Medicine reports.

Before moving to Paris, she had lived in a semi-urban area of Cameroon and had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, suggesting she caught the virus from someone else who was carrying the gorilla strain, the reports said.

Analysis of the virus in the laboratory has confirmed that it can replicate in human cells, it said.

Co-author Dr David Robertson, from the University of Manchester, said it was the first definitive transfer of HIV seen from a source other than a chimpanzee, and highlighted the need to monitor for the emergence of new strains.

(Agencies via Xinhua August 3, 2009)