# 3257
The more outlandish a rumor, the faster it seems to spread across the Internet. Most of the time, these stories are relatively harmless, are ridiculous on their face, and are easy enough to spot.
But this time we appear to have a couple of legitimate news sources that conspiratorialists can point to as they fan the flames.
First, the story, which appeared under the Reuters banner over 3 weeks ago.
HIV patients at higher risk from flu, WHO says
02 May 2009 11:53:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
* HIV patients at high risk from flu, need antivirals most
* WHO fears complications if HIV and H1N1 viruses combine
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA, May 2 (Reuters) - People with HIV are at high risk from the new flu strain that the World Health Organisation said is on the verge of a pandemic, the WHO said on Saturday.
The United Nations agency said people with immunodeficiency diseases -- including the AIDS virus -- will most likely be vulnerable to health complications from the H1N1 strain, as they are from regular seasonal flu, which kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year.
HIV and the new flu strain could also mix together in a dangerous way, as has occurred with HIV and tuberculosis, the WHO said in guidance for health workers on its website.
"Although there are inadequate data to predict the impact of a possible human influenza pandemic on HIV-affected populations, interactions between HIV/AIDS and A(H1N1) influenza could be significant," it said.
From this (admittedly awkwardly worded story) we get a few days later this regrettable headline and story from the UPI:
Swine flu-HIV could devastate human race
Which contains this choice bit of journalism:
Health authorities are particularly worried that the capability to mutate already exhibited by the virus could eventually let it combine with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.
Since then, conspiratorialists have been having a ball.
Websites, blogs, and even some talk radio hosts have picked up on this story with predictable results; warning of a mutation that will create an `airborne AIDS virus’. It is even making the email rounds.
While I’m not a virologist (and any reading this, please feel free to comment), I am aware that very similar genetic sequences are far more likely to recombine than dissimilar sequences.
The chance that two viruses will recombine (or reassort) to produce a new (chimeric) virus diminishes rapidly as sequence similarity declines.
All of which makes it almost impossible for the H1N1 virus and HIV to `combine into a super airborne AIDS virus’.
These viruses are genetically very different, with the HIV virus being a Lentivirus from the family Retroviridae and influenza coming from the family Orthomyxoviridae.
Their mating and producing an offspring is about as likely as the successful mating of an elephant and a giraffe.
If the HIV and influenza viruses were capable of reassortment with one-another, they’ve had millions of opportunities to do so over the past 30 years with seasonal flu (H1N1 & H3N2), and they haven’t.
All of this harkens back to the AIDS fear-mongering of the 1980’s, something I had hoped we’d moved beyond after nearly three decades.
For the record, the warning issued by the WHO about HIV and H1N1 was about the adverse outcomes that immunocompromised patients might experience if infected with this virus.
(click image to enlarge)
I’m under no illusion that this blog, or even a thousand others like it, could ever turn the tide of this (or any other) internet rumor. These things have a life of their own, and once started, seem to go on forever.
There are legitimate concerns over the reassortment of the H1N1 (or any influenza) virus with another strain. There are many possible adverse outcomes to such a mutation.
But a super virulent, airborne form of AIDS isn’t one of them.
