num_pages: 1070
description: While science has devoted much of its efforts to finding a cure for AIDS the sources of this deadly epidemic remain largely unexamined. Distinguished science journalist Edward Hooper presents the meticulously researched -- and highly readable -- history of HIV and its possible origins. Pursuing leads across the U.S. the Caribbean Europe and Africa Hooper pieces together the tantalizing clues offered by long-archived blood samples early AIDS-like cases (such as the Manchester sailor case of 1959) immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) and the medical interventions in Africa and elsewhere that may have played a role in SIVs' crossover into humans.Hooper examines over two dozen theories of origin and eventually discards most of them. What remains is a remarkable and well-supported theory for the sudden appearance of AIDS and the definitive story of its lethal spread. Drawing on more than 4000 sources and 600 interviews The River is a thorough and provocative investigation into the most terrible epidemic of the twentieth century.
language: English
title: The River : A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS
publisher: Little Brown and Company