In a ground-breaking new revelation, experts claim that they have managed to discover the origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, which is the main cause of AIDS, transmission among men who are homosexual.

With the findings of the study, scientists are now hopeful that there will be important implications in development of effective prevention strategies, including a potential vaccine for HIV.

"If we want to stop the HIV epidemic, then we must know the mechanisms by which HIV uses human sex to spread", said lead investigator Davey Smith, MD, MAS, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego.

For the sake of research, scientists employed the use of a genetic analysis known as phylogenetic analysis, and studied a group of gay and bisexual males who had transmitted the virus to other men.

Blood and semen samples from transmitting partners were studied and it was discovered that most of the sexually transmitted HIV infections were a direct result of exposure to HIV virus in semen.

Details of the study have been published in the February 10 issue of the Journal Science Translational Medicine.