Good News, Bad News, and Chimpanzees

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-08-04 00:16:00 UTC
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(photo credit: wikimedia)

First, the good news. Researchers in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center developed mathematical models to estimate the impact of advances in TB medicine on the global tuberculosis pandemic. They found that depending on how new technologies, drugs, and strategies are applied, TB incidence could be reduced by 13-71% by 2050. Based on your usual level of incompetence and bureaucracy, I'd say we can bet on a reduction of about 50%. Reducing the TB pandemic by half is pretty good news. It would be better news if it wasn't going to take 40 years to get there, I admit.

What's especially good news is that the estimate was based on things we have already discovered; it doesn't depend on future scientific discovery. The technology they were looking at includes a new TB vaccine for newborns, better drug combinations and regimens, and new diagnostic tools.

And now the bad news - a new strain of HIV has been discovered. It looks like it developed in gorillas (or possibly in chimpanzees, then crossed into gorillas), and recently crossed over into humans. This is bad news, but it's not time to panic or anything. New HIV strains happen all the time. It's not likely to make the global burden of HIV worse. For more information on the science of the retroviruses involved, this post from Science Blogs has an explanation.

Finally, a bonus link. It looks as though malaria originated in chimpanzees and made the jump to humans several thousand years ago. Aside from providing some interesting insight into malaria, this is also evidence of why human and animal health will always be interlinked.

Depressing editor's note: The chimp who played Clyde in Any Which You Can was beaten to death  by his trainer for stealing doughnuts just before the movie wrapped.

Edited to add: Okay, Clyde was an orangutan. WIkipedia led me astray, and my large primate ID skills are clearly weak. The description of his death is unfortunately accurate.

Alanna Shaikh
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