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French scientists have returned to the ring in the latest round of the
fight over HIV’s origins. A new report from the Pasteur Institute in Paris
confirms that its original strain of HIV was sent to the US in 1983 and
is indeed ‘indistinguishable’ from the strain used by American scientists
to make an antibody test. This contradicts the latest statements of Robert
Gallo, co-discoverer of HIV (This Week, 9 March).

Earlier this year, Gallo’s team studied samples sent from France in
1983 and concluded that Gallo’s own strain, IIIB, could not have come from
the Pasteur as alleged. However, they studied only three of four samples
sent; they had lost the fourth.

The Pasteur’s own analysis shows that the strain in the first three
samples was indeed different from IIIB. But the tissue from the fourth,
lost sample contains a strain indistinguishable from IIIB. Simon Wain-Hobson
at the Pasteur, who led the study, said: ‘The relationship between the (French
and American) viruses is now crystal clear. It just needs to be acknowledged.’