Mutated HIV Strain May be Causing Earlier AIDS Symptoms

published on August 7, 2018 by Steve Williams, in care2

New research warns that mutated strains of HIV detected in Saskatchewan, Canada, appear to be leading to faster-developing AIDS-related illnesses.

The research, published this month in the science journal “AIDS“, came about after health workers reported rapidly-growing HIV rates in 2016 in the west Canadian province of Saskatchewan, with the vast majority of cases among the province’s First Nation peoples. What was perhaps even more alarming was that these cases appeared to progress to AIDS-related illnesses very quickly after first detection.

HIV is a sinister virus in that its most common strains today can lurk in our bodies for several months without manifesting symptoms. Some people may go years without showing obvious signs of HIV, and the virus may not be picked up unless they undergo regular screening or the infection is caught during another round of tests for an unrelated illnesses.

Cases in Saskatchewan appeared to be different, however, with rapid-onset toward AIDS-illness. Researchers wanted to find out why this might be.

Researchers at a laboratory at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids used a multi-year analysis of 2,300 samples of HIV strains from Saskatchewan province and compared those to other strains obtained from across Canada and the United States. This enabled them to see if there was anything unique or different about the strains — and there was.

Around 98 percent of the strains from Saskatchewan displayed a certain level of immune resistance. The more worrying thing, however, was that 80 percent of the sample carried a mutation that is known to accelerate HIV’s progression into AIDS.

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Zabrina Brumme

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Mutated HIV Strain May be Causing Earlier AIDS Symptoms

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