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November 7, 2019 01:00 pm
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/z99FIctujvw/first-new-hiv-strain-in-19-years-identified
First New HIV Strain In 19 Years Identified
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.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/z99FIctujvw/first-new-hiv-strain-in-19-years-identified
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