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The Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )

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In the early 1970’s, scientists in Japan and the United States began to study animal retroviruses to gain further knowledge about viruses that caused leukemia. Although animal retroviruses existed in non-human primates, it was believed that human retroviruses did not exist. However, after the T-cell lymphtropic virus was isolated from a patient with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, the human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus (HTLV) became the first human retrovirus discovered and marked the beginning of scientific milestones.
Since the initial discovery of HTLV in 1980, there have been 7 HTLV subtypes that have been established, the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was discovered and reclassified under the Lentivirus genus after previously being classified as a member of the HTLV family, and research has been conducted on the association of oncological diseases, the most prominent ones being Adult T-cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATL/ATLL), and other sexually transmitted infectious diseases with HTLV.
HTLV is present throughout the world in clusters, but it is highly endemic Japan, sub-Saharan Africa, Central & South America, the Caribbean islands, the Middle East, and Australo-Melanesia (2 & cdnlink). In North America and Europe, there is medium prevalence of the virus and it is suspected that the population of those infected are comprised of individuals linked to immigrants, children of immigrants, sex workers, and injection drug users (Medscape) ( cdnlink). Although researchers

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