Résumé
Thirty years after the discovery of HIV-1, the early transmission,
dissemination and establishment of the virus in human populations remain
unclear. Using statistical approaches applied to HIV-1 sequence data from
central Africa, we show that from the 1920s Kinshasa was the focus of
early transmission and the source of pre-1960 pandemic viruses elsewhere.
Location and dating estimates were validated using the earliest HIV-1
archival sample, also from Kinshasa. The epidemic histories of HIV-1 group
M and non-pandemic group O were similar until ~1960, after which group M
underwent an epidemiological transition and outpaced regional population
growth. Our results reconstruct the early dynamics of HIV-1 and emphasize
the role of social changes and transport networks in the establishment of
this virus in human populations.