Photo: HIV/AIDS Emerged as Early as 1880s

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Residents of Leopoldville, Belgian Congo—now known as Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo#—are seen in a photo taken between 1883 and 1885.

Rapid urbanization in Kinshasa and other cities in the region may have been crucial to the emergence of HIV/AIDS, according to an October 2008 study suggesting that the virus emerged in humans in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Courtesy the Royal Museum for Central Africa

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