... HIV.
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[URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8175379.stm]BBC report on gorilla HIV[/URL]

It's not the big apes and humans alone.
It's also the feline virus which is heavily threatening the big cats - foremost the lion population!

...and to follow up on that, please read below about a Cameroon woman recently migrated to France now has been diagnosed with a "new HIV variant".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32258847/ns/health-aids/

Over 30 million people have died from AIDS so it is very serious. 7,000 people are infected with HIV everyday. Our goal is to educate 1 million people on how to stay safe from HIV infection. Be sure you take the simple online quiz to make sure you know enough about HIV to stay safe.
http://bit.ly/bSnPH

I found this on the http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8186263.stm - this morning.
Interesting to follow up on this topic.

Scientists say they have decoded the entire genetic content of HIV-1 - the main cause of Aids in humans.

They hope this will pave the way to a greater understanding of how the virus operates, and potentially accelerate the development of drug treatments.

HIV carries its genetic information in more complicated structures than some other viruses.

The US research, published in Nature, may allow scientists the chance to look at the information buried inside.

HIV, like the viruses which cause influenza, hepatitis C and polio, carries its genetic information as single-stranded RNA rather than double-stranded DNA.

The information enclosed in DNA is encoded in a relatively simple way, but in RNA this is more complex.

We are also beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host

Ron Swanstrom study author RNA is able to fold into intricate patterns and structures. Therefore decoding a full genome opens up genetic information that was not previously accessible, and may hold answers to why the virus acts as it does.

The team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said they planned to use the information to see if they could make tiny changes to the virus.

"If it doesn't grow as well when you disrupt the virus with mutations, then you know you've mutated or affected something that was important to the virus," says Ron Swanstrom, professor of microbiology and immunology.

"We are also beginning to understand tricks the genome uses to help the virus escape detection by the human host."

Deep inside:

Dr David Robertson from the University of Manchester welcomed this "definitive analysis".

"What this may reveal is some of the proteins operating at a level below the structures, which may have all sorts of functions within the virus.

"More generally, if we can unpick the structures then we can compare the systems of different viruses and gain new understanding of how they work."

Keith Alcorn of the HIV information service NAM added: "Encouraging the virus to mutate is not a new idea, but it is one of a number of options on the table.

"How important this information will be for the development of new drugs remains to be seen, but it is a useful addition to what we know."