"BUSHMEAT" and the origin of HIV/AIDS - A Case Study of Biodiversity, Population Pressures, and Human Health - February 19th, 2002
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- Introduction
- Agenda
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Sponsored by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, Population Action International, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the Environment and Energy Study Institute
Download the EESI Briefing Summary
Made possible through generous support from The Winslow Foundation
Introduction
The diversity of life on Earth tends to be concentrated on land in some
twenty-five areas designated as "biodiversity hotspots." While
making up only 1.4 percent of the total land surface, these areas contain
large proportions of its species, for example, more than one third of all
known mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Often, they are also sites
of high human population density and growth, and species in these regions,
therefore, may be particularly at risk.
This briefing will focus on one such hotspot - the West African Forests
region - and will look at the slaughter of chimpanzees, gorillas, and other
primates for "bushmeat" as an example of how species may be endangered
by human activity, and how the loss of our closest relatives may have significant
implications for human health.
It is believed that a sub-species of chimpanzee in west-central Africa
may be the original source of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and that transmission
of the virus, a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), to humans was the
result of blood exposures from the handling of chimpanzees killed by hunters.
New research has identified other SIVs in other African primate species,
raising the possibility of additional exposures. The extensive killing
of primate species, therefore, not only threatens many of them with extinction,
but may also result in new human HIV-like infections in the future that
may originate in wild primate populations.
Agenda
Introduction and Overview
Eric Chivian M.D., Director, Center for Health and the
Global Environment, Harvard Medical School
The Concept of "Biodiversity Hotspots"
Stuart Pimm Ph.D., Professor of Conservation
Biology, Columbia University
Population Pressures in "Hotspots"
Robert Engelman, Vice-President for Research,
Population Action International
The Practice of "Bushmeat" in West African Forests-Jane Goodall
Ph.D., C.B.E.,
Founder and Trustee, The Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife
Research,
Education, and Conservation
SIV-Infected Primates as Sources and as Models for Understanding HIV/AIDS
Beatrice H. Hahn, M.D., Professor of Medicine,
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Discussion
This briefing is open to the public and no reservations are required.
For further information, please contact Tracy Graham of the Center for
Health and the Global Environment (617-432-2164 or tracy_graham@hms.harvard.edu)
or Beth Bleil of EESI (202-662-1885 or bbleil@eesi.org). Information
is also available at www.eesi.org.
Video:
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