Genital herpes : the “patient zero” has been identified

Louise Walsh

Published the 02.10.2017 at 08: 00

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Herpes génitalpréhistoirevirus

Vesicles painful and inflammatory, it is impossible to get rid of. In France, one person out of five suffers from genital herpes. A disease of the millennium, in which humanity could have been. In fact, as shown in a british team, the virus that causes this infection, HSV2, that doesn’t hurt our species.

The researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford (United Kingdom) may have found ” patient zero “, because of which the mankind suffers from this scourge. And explain their approach in a study, published in Virus Evolution.

A successful development

The culprit has a name that is little known : Paranthropus boisei. This hominid bipedal, brain of small size, has played a crucial role in the spread of HSV2. Nicknamed the nutcracker, it was also the flesh of other monkeys carry the herpes virus. However, the infection is spread in particular by wounds or the bites.

Introduced into this branch of humanoid, the virus has adapted to the mucous membranes, winner in efficiency. “Herpes infects everything, from man to the coral, with specificities according to each species, said Dr Charlotte Houldcroft. Once HSV2 comes in a case, it must rest ; it is easily transmitted from mother to child, through blood, saliva or sex. It is particularly suited to populations are not very dense. “

The matter does not stop there. Paranthropus boisei has no doubt crossed the path of one of our ancestors, Homo erectus. It was a 1.4 to 3 million years ago. Before this pivotal date, not herpes virus in the hominids.

A close relationship

From this point, two assumptions are being issued by the British. “For this virus to cross the species barrier does not require that a genetic mutation that is happy and an exchange of fluids,” says Dr. Houldcroft. The first track proves to be rather bloody. Our ancestor would have just eaten the little hominid. Exposing the transition to her flesh-infected.

The second theory is far more peaceful. Homo erectus, and Paranthropus boisei would simply met on the shores of the sources of water, such as lake Turkana in Kenya. Remember, herpes is transmitted through bodily fluids… including sex.

“We have concluded that the possibility that Paranthropus boisei was the species located in the right place and at the right time to contract HSV2 and transmit it to our ancestors,” slice Dr Charlotte Houldcroft.