Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin, authors of Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and How the World Can Finally Overcome It, tell a remarkable story:
[T]he improbable journey of the killer strain of HIV was feasible for only a few hectic decades, from the 1880s to the 1920s. Without "The Scramble for Africa," it’s hard to see how HIV could have made it out of southeastern Cameroon to eventually kill tens of millions of people. Even a delay might have caused the killer strain of HIV to die a lonely death deep in the forest.
Erica Grieder confesses that she isn't "sure what to make of the implied comment on colonialism" and points out that "interactions between previously separate groups can have catastrophic consequences as well as productive ones." Interview with one of the authors here.
The Dish 