Scientists “were able to extract” a “nearly complete genetic sequence of an HIV virus” from a 50-year-old lymph node of a Congolese man. This is “the oldest nearly full-length genetic code for an HIV-1 virus recovered thus far, and one that supports the theory that the virus that causes AIDS began to transmit among people within the first decade or two of the 20th century.” Scientists Extract Nearly Complete HIV Genome From 50-Year-Old Tissue Sample