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Medicine Science

First New HIV Strain In 19 Years Identified (scientificamerican.com) 70

Posted by BeauHD from the hide-and-seek dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: A research group at the medical devices and health care giant Abbott has discovered a new strain of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV -- the first to be identified in 19 years. Abbott continues to look for potential new HIV strains to ensure that diagnostic tests for blood screening and detecting infectious diseases remain up to date, says Mary Rodgers, senior author of the paper announcing the finding and head of the company's Global Viral Surveillance Program. The new strain, called HIV-1 group M subtype L, is extremely rare and can be detected by Abbott's current screening system, Rodgers says. The company's tests screen more than 60 percent of the global blood supply, she adds, noting it must detect every strain and "has to be right every time."

The most recent of the three samples used to identify HIV-1 group M subtype L has been sitting in an Abbott freezer since 2001. The amount of virus in the sample was too low to read back then, but new technology recently made it possible. Comparing that sequence with the others made available by the research community, Abbott researchers found two additional examples of the strain -- in samples from 1983 and 1990, also from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hinting that it has been around for a while. "Now that we know it exists, it'll change how we look for it," Rodgers says. The company's tests focus on the part of the viral genome that does not change very much from generation to generation, which is why it was able to detect the new strain. The finding also suggests there are more strains to be found, Rodgers says. "The full diversity has not been characterized. We're going to continue to look." The study has been published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
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First New HIV Strain In 19 Years Identified More

First New HIV Strain In 19 Years Identified

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  • Can this new strain be controlled by existing medicines such as PrEP ?

    • Re:Important question not addressed (Score:4, Informative)

      by Gilgaron ( 575091 ) on Thursday November 07, 2019 @09:53AM (#59390342)
      I can't say with any authority, but it is still HIV-1, so I'd expect so. The reason this article is interesting is really the new analysis technique, not that it found something particularly concerning.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

        I can't say with any authority, but it is still HIV-1, so I'd expect so. The reason this article is interesting is really the new analysis technique, not that it found something particularly concerning.

        Exactly.

        That some dolts in here attempt to turn it into a Hollywood Diss is silly on their part. They sound like the folks that claim that HPV virus vaccines cause teenage promiscuity.

        • the folks that claim that HPV virus vaccines cause teenage promiscuity.

          I thought that it was pretty well established that being a teenager was the cause of 98.653% of cases of teenage promiscuity. There were tens of chapters on the topic in that famous Bronze Age goat herder's collation of bad-cheese dreams, the BuyBull.

          • the folks that claim that HPV virus vaccines cause teenage promiscuity.

            I thought that it was pretty well established that being a teenager was the cause of 98.653% of cases of teenage promiscuity. There were tens of chapters on the topic in that famous Bronze Age goat herder's collation of bad-cheese dreams, the BuyBull.

            No no no. The fundies know that if we only teach abstinence in schools, young men and women will remain virgins until the age of 35, when they enter into holy matrimony, and start popping out babies no less than one a year.

            • Given the rapid drop-off in human female fertility from the mid-30s onwards, then their model of "holy matrimony" must include an awful lot of multiple births, polygamy etc. Otherwise their populations would be falling off a cliff. Oh, hang on, they are [pewforum.org].

              • Given the rapid drop-off in human female fertility from the mid-30s onwards, then their model of "holy matrimony" must include an awful lot of multiple births, polygamy etc. Otherwise their populations would be falling off a cliff. Oh, hang on, they are [pewforum.org].

                And yes it is. So many young women are given marching orders that you graduate from college, get your career, then at 35 you find the 6 foot 4 buffed, male model looks well to do guy, and start having babies immediately.

                That actually doesn't work well at all. You'll be looking at fertility treatments, often the costs of frozen eggs and implantation. The wife and I know personally several once young ladies that just failed at becoming mothers via this method.

                It's denial of human characteristics. It's t

  • As someone whose teenage years were the 1980s, I remember the big public awareness campaigns regarding HIV and AIDS. Basically, contracting HIV was a death sentence. The messages were use condoms and don't share needles. Scare stories about people leaving infected needles in public telephone coin returns. Yet I do not recall seeing any major HIV awareness campaign since the 1990s. Granted, it is no longer the death sentence it was back in the 1980s, thanks to developments in drugs, but it appears to have be

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )

      I am sure the pharma companies are OK with the status quo of maintenance of HIV through regular drug therapy. Also, both AIDS and HIV rates have declined and less than 5,000 people die of AIDS every year. The main public health focus has been on opiods.

    • Don't forget blood transfusions which is really what this article should be clearer about. Personal tests for an obscure strain is nice but not terribly interesting on the individual level. A test for a rare strain that could put the entire blood supply at risk invisibly? That's very important.
    • It could be that the HIV awareness campaigns are now targeted to the populations most likely to carry and transmit it. Google ads can target populations based on many factors, as can most apps. Then there are the "hookup" apps which are targeted to gay men, for instance. I would think those would get more HIV awareness ad's then say, "Christian Mingle."
    • ... US != "entire world" here in Brazil, there's massive anti HIV campaigns made by the government since early 2000 (and before)

      • Nope, it's not just in the USA that the campaigns have stopped. Back in the 1980's we were innundated with AIDS/HIV awareness propaganda, such at the Grim Reaper Bowling commercial [youtube.com], but there's pretty much nothing now.

        We're supposed to believe that the current public health crisis is all the young people dying from contaminated meth at dance/music concerts and we're expected to have an opinion on the pill testing debate.

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