HIV-infected people of monkeys

UK scientists have found a new strain of HIV that can infect gorillas to humans. A French woman was infected with the virus.

Biologist David Robertson and colleagues at Manchester University have analyzed DNA of a 62-year-old woman after she returned to France from Cameroon. They confirmed that the new strain has a similar genetic structure to the monkey immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that scientists have discovered in wild gorillas in Africa.

" We will be surprised if there are no more people infected with the new HIV strain. We also do not think this is a direct infection from gorillas to humans, " Robertson said.

Before 2004, the French woman lived on the outskirts of Yaoundé city - the capital of Cameroon. Here she has never been exposed to gorillas or eaten their meat (gorilla meat is the main source of SIV infection to humans). That means she has been infected with a new HIV strain from others, probably through sexual contact.

The HIV (green) attacks a cell in the human body.(Photo: aps.org)

Until now, the immune system of women has not shown any signs of impairment of activity - characteristic of AIDS. But cell tests show that the virus can replicate itself in white blood cells like other HIV strains. Robertson said the viral replication rate decreased when exposed to anti-HIV drugs.

" The emergence of gorilla virus in the human body suggests that it is possible that some other HIV strains originated from gorillas. Another theory is: gorillas infect the chimpanzees, then the virus spreads. "Mr. Robertson commented.

According to the virologist, Martine Peeters of Montpellier University (France), this finding shows that it is possible that new HIV strains often appear in primates .

" It only adds to the evidence that AIDS virus strains attack a variety of primates before jumping to humans, " said Peeters, one of the first SIV strains in the gorilla.

Robertson said that virus experts did not detect the infection because current HIV tests only identify common HIV strains.