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The AIDS virus arrived in the United States via Haiti in about 1969, a decade earlier than previously believed, and likely infected hundreds of thousands of people before it was first detected, according to a UA biologist.

A new study, publishing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used DNA analysis to pinpoint for the first time how the HIV-1 virus entered the United States. The study’s lead author, Michael Worobey, said the research shows most HIV/AIDS cases in the country descended from a single common ancestor.

“Haiti was the stepping stone the virus took when it left central Africa and started its sweep around the world,” said Worobey, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the UA. “Once the virus got to the U.S., then it just moved explosively around the world.”

Worobey and a team of researchers in the United States and Europe analyzed archived blood samples taken from early patients, including five of the first AIDS patients identified in the United States, all recent Haitian immigrants. The researchers also analyzed blood samples from another 117 AIDS patients from around the world.

The research traces the spread of the epidemic from the United States back to Haiti, where the virus arrived from Africa in about 1966, Worobey said. Future research will attempt to trace the genetic makeup of various strains of HIV even further back.