New HIV Strain Could Pose Public-Health Concerns

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

New HIV Strain Could Pose Public-Health Concerns

AIDS Alert (11/98) Vol. 13, No. 11, P. 126

A new HIV strain detected in a woman in Cameroon may not immediately affect public health, but it may provide some insight into the origin of the disease. The new strain, dubbed "YBF 30" or HIV-1 group N, is distinct from group M (the major HIV group) and group O HIV strains. Dr. Harold W. Jaffe, associate director for HIV/AIDS in the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explained that the new group is interesting from an academic standpoint because it indicates that the disease may have originated from non-human primates. He noted, though, that there may be some concerns as to whether current HIV tests at blood banks can detect the new strain. Some tests can detect group O, but further studies are needed to determine if screening tests recognize group N. The Food and Drug Administration currently requires all newly licensed tests for blood banks to be able to screen for the group O strain. Jaffe added, however, that "on the group N, we just don't have any information at all. It's probably appropriate to be concerned to the extent of looking at how well our tests detect these variants." Questions relating to whether current viral-load tests are reliable for group N exist as well, but this issue less of a public health concern and more of a problem in individual patient treatment, Jaffe said.

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