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"Based on over a decade of research, involving more than 600 interviews and analysis of more than 4,000 scientific texts, The River examines the myriad theories about the origin of the AIDS epidemic - and reaches a stunning and startling conclusion." "Since the early nineties, serious HIV researchers have been aware that the most common variant of HIV - human immunodeficiency virus - is the direct descendant of an SIV - simian immunodeficiency virus - carried by African chimpanzees." "Many doctors and scientists think the transfer was "natural," the result of human/chimp encounters - either from the keeping of chimps as pets, or from hunting and skinning chimps for food." "Others, including Edward Hooper, believe it more likely that the transfer was the result of American and European medical interventions in Africa during the 1950s - and specifically the administration of more than a million doses of an experimental oral polio vaccine, some batches of which may have been manufactured from chimp kidneys. The maps of vaccinations and early AIDS cases are extraordinarily similar."--Jacket.