On 21 Oct 1998, Ian A. York wrote:
> In article <362D665E.EBCB7BD9 at aspect.com.au>,
> Nick Wilson <nick.wilson at aspect.com.au> wrote:
> >A quick question, I've always thought HIV was related to Hepatitus B in
> >some way, but someone told me that this was not so. Are they ?
> They're both viruses. They both have a reverse transcriptase. Other than
> that, they're not related. HepB is a hepadnavirus, HIV is a retrovirus;
> The fact that both do use reverse transcriptase may have been what you
> were thinking about, but that doesn't mean they're more than very, very
> distantly related.
And, of course, they're "related" in that you're at particular risk for
infection if you're exposed to other people's blood products; as in,
sharing needles, health care work, and sexual contact.
John Seavitt
