This is a true story. A gastroenterologist from Lafayette, LA
was accused of

infecting his girlfriend with HIV by injecting her with a
syringe containing HIV

Swan, duck/Astrakhan, Kurgan 2005

Tu

infected blood from one of his patients. The victim (the
girlfriend) claimed that

the doctor injected her during an argument. However, the victim
was also a

nurse, and so conceivably may have had contact with HIV infected
blood through

her job. Given below is a phylogenetic tree constructed using
HIV sequences

from the victim (denoted with a “V” in the label), HIV sequences
from the patient

whose blood was allegedly in the syringe that the doctor
injected into the victim

(denoted by a “P” in the label), and HIV sequences representing
much of the

diversity of HIV strains from the Lafayette area during the time
of the incident

(denoted by “LA” in the label).

Is the tree on the next page consistent with the prosecution’s
case that the doctor

injected the victim with HIV infected blood from his patient?
Why or why not?