French virologists from the Rouen Hospital Centre in northwestern France announced on Sunday that they have found a new subtype of the AIDS virus that appears to have jumped the species barrier to humans from gorillas.

“We have identified a new human immuno-deficiency virus in a woman from Cameroon,” wrote Professor Jean-Christophe Plantier, the head of the research team, in the scientific journal ‘Nature Medicine.’ “It is closely related to gorilla simian immunodeficiency virus and shows no evidence of recombination with other HIV-1 lineages or with chimpanzee SIV.”

Faced with the “rare” profile of a 62-year-old woman from Cameroon, the scientists carried out routine genetic sequencing of the virus. Results revealed a new strain that looked like no other sample of AIDS virus, and was eventually compared to the gorilla simian immunodeficiency virus discovered in 2006.

The scientists, who named the new virus “group P,” say that “the discovery of this new family of HIV-1 highlights the need to closely monitor the emergence of new HIV strains, particularly in the central West African countries from which all existing HIV-1 viruses have originated.”

The team’s final conclusion was that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, “are probable sources of HIV-1.”

The woman in question, a widow, had no contact with gorillas but said she had several sex partners after her husband died. She remembered having been sick once.

AIDS has infected an estimated 33 million people globally and has killed another 25 million. There are approximately thirty vaccinations currently being tested.