Emergence of New Strain of hiv

[Solo_LTSurvivor]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32258847/ns/health-aids/

[AndyArrow]

Gorillas to Humans --

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8175379.stm

[freaky_dream]

The more interesting part of the articles is the mention of inactive areas where HSV lesions appear leading to an increased potential for infection.

[GNYC09]

Two interesting quotes from the BBC article:

"She is the only person known to be infected with the new strain but the researchers expect to find other cases.
Before moving to Paris, she had lived in a semi-urban area of Cameroon and had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, suggesting she caught the virus from someone else who was carrying the gorilla strain." -- so other people must be carrying this new strain of the virus...

"The medical implication is that, because this virus is not very closely related to the other three HIV-1 groups, it is not detected by conventional tests." -- yikes...

[Miss Philicia]

I am Naga Eboko, exchange student from Cameroon. Beef jerky time...

[elf]

Do they have a name for it, like HIV-3?
  As if it were a sequel of a horror movie  

---
I tried searching for ''new hiv strain'' and google found this:
New, more virulent strain of HIV found
French scientists have identified a new strain of HIV that is highly replicative and may escape the detection of current screening tests. The new strain could potentially trigger a new pandemic of HIV infection.

The new strain was isolated by Dr François Simon of the Bichat Hospital in Paris from a 40 year old woman living in Cameroon, Africa, who had been diagnosed as having AIDS. The new isolate does not belong to either of the two existing HIV-1 subgroups -- M (major) and O (outlier). Instead, Dr Simon and colleagues have classified the virus as an N strain (Nature Medicine 1998;9:1032-6).

Dr Simon and colleagues had originally set out to do an epidemiological survey in Cameroon, a country in west central Africa whose citizens are known to be afflicted by a remarkable diversity of retroviruses. All the subtypes of HIV-1 group . . .

back in 1998 

[Ann]

"The medical implication is that, because this virus is not very closely related to the other three HIV-1 groups, it is not detected by conventional tests." -- yikes...

Before we get a deluge in the Am I Infected forum of people insisting this must be what's making them sick, despite repeated negative hiv antibody tests, I want to add some clarification here.

This woman's different strain was picked up on through discrepancies in her VIRAL LOAD tests. She tested hiv positive on the antibody tests in 2004. They KNEW she was hiv positive, the important thing here is they discovered, AFTER she tested positive, that she's carrying a different strain.

The 62-year-old patient tested positive for HIV in 2004, shortly after moving to Paris from Cameroon, according to the researchers. source

French doctors treating the 62-year-old Cameroonian woman who was living in Paris said they initially spotted some discrepancies in routine viral load tests.  source

She responded to diagnostic tests for HIV-1 but further tests failed to pinpoint the viral subtype.

The virus was genetically decoded and then put through a computer model to compare its evolutionary past against known viruses, both HIV and its equivalent in apes, called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).

The strain was a "significant" match with SIVgor -- an immune deficiency virus found in gorillas. source



I think, rather than the inability of conventional test to pick up on this strain, it's a case of doctors not noticing the discrepancies in their patients' VL tests, UNLIKE this woman's doctor. You also have to realise that in many parts of Africa, viral load tests are not routinely done - and so there's no data from which to pick up discrepancies in the first place. This woman, although of African origin, was being monitored in PARIS. That's Europe, folks, where viral load tests ARE routine.

And I also have to wonder if the tests that picked up the discrepancies were actually genotype tests, rather than viral load. (it would make more sense to me) It would be typical of the Press to dumb-down the jargon. Genotype tests are even more difficult to come by in many parts of Africa - but routine in Europe.


Ann

[Ann]

Do they have a name for it, like HIV-3?
  As if it were a sequel of a horror movie 

---
I tried searching for ''new hiv strain'' and google found this:
New, more virulent strain of HIV found
French scientists have identified a new strain of HIV that is highly replicative and may escape the detection of current screening tests. The new strain could potentially trigger a new pandemic of HIV infection.

The new strain was isolated by Dr François Simon of the Bichat Hospital in Paris from a 40 year old woman living in Cameroon, Africa, who had been diagnosed as having AIDS. The new isolate does not belong to either of the two existing HIV-1 subgroups -- M (major) and O (outlier). Instead, Dr Simon and colleagues have classified the virus as an N strain (Nature Medicine 1998;9:1032-6).

Dr Simon and colleagues had originally set out to do an epidemiological survey in Cameroon, a country in west central Africa whose citizens are known to be afflicted by a remarkable diversity of retroviruses. All the subtypes of HIV-1 group . . .

back in 1998 

Elf, this is from 1998 and NOT what's being talked about in the news now.

The new subtype has been called P, adding to three established HIV-1 subtypes -- M, by far the most prevalent, and O and N, which are rare. source

Ann

[positively_me]

I found this article on BBC and thought I'd share....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8175379.stm