Almost like detectives retracing the steps of a killer in a whodunnit, researchers have pieced together how the virus that later became known as HIV grew from infecting a few hunter-gatherers in Cameroon to affecting 76 million people across the globe.
Using historic blood samples to create a viral timeline, the team confirms that Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was the springboard for an explosion of infection that began around 1920 – and for the first time, comprehensively map out what happened next.
Once HIV had got a toehold in Kinshasa, migrant workers gradually carried the virus south to mining regions fed by new railways. Then, after the DRC became independent from Belgium in 1960, the virus – with the additional help of river transport and sex workers – spiralled out of control and spread to the rest of southern Africa, decades before the disease was first reported in 1981, and the virus was officially discovered in 1983. (1)
We connect with other people.
And that is why we die.
This is the only way to live…
Wear is a synonym to Being.
Being is a synonym to Life.
Life is a synonym to Death.
We all live.
We all die.
Through this decay we all affect everyone and everything.
Only through mortal parts can the immortal One exist…
See beyond the chaos of a virus spreading.
See life itself being manifested.
See eternity establishing itself via the ephemeral.
Ebola, HIV, humans, bacteria.
Everything in everything.
All in all.
And yet nothing…