HUNTERS in Africa who catch monkeys and apes for food should be provided with an alternative diet to prevent new diseases from emerging, says a researcher who has shown that monkey viruses jump to people far more often than thought. 鈥淚f you think of the lives lost and the billions of dollars spent on HIV/AIDS, the cost of replacing bushmeat to prevent the next pandemic seems reasonable,鈥� says Nathan Wolfe of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Wolfe screened people from nine rural communities in Cameroon with the help of Eitel Mpoudi-Ngole鈥檚 team at the Cameroon Military Medical Centre in Yaound茅. Ten of the 1100 people exposed to the blood or body fluids of primates via hunting tested positive for retroviruses called simian foamy viruses. These viruses are probably harmless, but follow-up studies are planned (The Lancet, vol 363, p 911 and p 932).
鈥淥ur research shows the transmission of retroviruses to humans is not limited to a few, isolated occurrences like those that gave rise to HIV,鈥� says Wolfe. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a cause for concern.鈥�
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