Need for closely watching emergence of new HIV variants
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Avik Sengupta
WHO reports that Bangladesh is still considered as a low HIV/AIDS prevalent country. However, it is at a critical moment in the course of its AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that there are 13,000 HIV-positive people in the country and that HIV prevalence in the adult population is less than 0.01%. However, the country's vulnerability is very high. National HIV surveillance indicates that the rate of HIV infection among street-based sex workers in central Bangladesh is high compared with sex workers in other parts of South Asia. HIV, among injecting drug users, is already 4.0%.
The majority of parents are not at ease to talk about sensitive issues such as sexuality and HIV/AIDS to their children. At the same time, teachers are still not comfortable to talk on these issues. But in reality, students are curious and have a lot of questions in their minds related to the physiological and emotional changes during adolescent age. They can get wrong information from their peers and friends if parents and teachers fail. Blood safety is one of the priority issues for prevention of HIV/AIDS, especially in Bangladesh as professional donors form still do one of the significant groups of donors. There is also evidence that many drug users are also professional blood donors.
HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which attacks the body's immune system, giving rise to lethal infections. Patients diagnosed with HIV can take medications to delay or stop HIV from developing into AIDS. There are 33 million confirmed cases of AIDS worldwide. The unnamed woman has no signs of AIDS and remains untreated. Researchers' findings indicate that gorillas, along with chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV-1. The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence of new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa, the origin of all existing HIV-1 groups. It also highlights how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one geographical location to another as has been dramatically evident with the recent emergence of swine flu.
The most likely explanation for the emergence of the new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission, though researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the chimpanzee SIV gave rise to the new strain "either indirectly by transmission to gorillas and then to humans or directly by transmission to humans and also to gorillas." Researchers said they don't know how widespread the virus is among humans. The human prevalence of this new lineage remains to be determined. It could be circulating unnoticed in elsewhere.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else.
The writer is at Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Canada. He may be reached at
e-mail: avik.sengupta@mail.mcgill.ca
WHO reports that Bangladesh is still considered as a low HIV/AIDS prevalent country. However, it is at a critical moment in the course of its AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that there are 13,000 HIV-positive people in the country and that HIV prevalence in the adult population is less than 0.01%. However, the country's vulnerability is very high. National HIV surveillance indicates that the rate of HIV infection among street-based sex workers in central Bangladesh is high compared with sex workers in other parts of South Asia. HIV, among injecting drug users, is already 4.0%.
The majority of parents are not at ease to talk about sensitive issues such as sexuality and HIV/AIDS to their children. At the same time, teachers are still not comfortable to talk on these issues. But in reality, students are curious and have a lot of questions in their minds related to the physiological and emotional changes during adolescent age. They can get wrong information from their peers and friends if parents and teachers fail. Blood safety is one of the priority issues for prevention of HIV/AIDS, especially in Bangladesh as professional donors form still do one of the significant groups of donors. There is also evidence that many drug users are also professional blood donors.
HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which attacks the body's immune system, giving rise to lethal infections. Patients diagnosed with HIV can take medications to delay or stop HIV from developing into AIDS. There are 33 million confirmed cases of AIDS worldwide. The unnamed woman has no signs of AIDS and remains untreated. Researchers' findings indicate that gorillas, along with chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV-1. The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence of new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa, the origin of all existing HIV-1 groups. It also highlights how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one geographical location to another as has been dramatically evident with the recent emergence of swine flu.
The most likely explanation for the emergence of the new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission, though researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the chimpanzee SIV gave rise to the new strain "either indirectly by transmission to gorillas and then to humans or directly by transmission to humans and also to gorillas." Researchers said they don't know how widespread the virus is among humans. The human prevalence of this new lineage remains to be determined. It could be circulating unnoticed in elsewhere.
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. To be aware of a single shortcoming in oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in someone else.
The writer is at Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Canada. He may be reached at
e-mail: avik.sengupta@mail.mcgill.ca