Cameroon Silently Exporting Peculiar HIV Strain

Ntaryike Divine Jr

Douala, Cameroon

27 November 2011

Ahead of this year’s World AIDS Day slated for Dec 1, there is emerging evidence that Cameroon; reputed as a crucible for rare types of HIV may be silently exporting another uncommon strain of the virus that causes AIDS.  

The reputable science journal, The Lancet reported late last week that the “very rare strain of AIDS virus previously found only among a few people in Cameroon has most probably spread outside the West African country.”

The claim is hinged on recent findings by French doctors at the Paris Saint Louis Hospital.  The medics say last January, an unnamed 57-year-old male grieving with fever, rash, swollen lymph glands and genital ulceration was admitted at the healthcare delivery facility.  A month later, and against unsatisfactory tests to confirm the supposed HIV-1 group type infection, the patient developed facial paralysis; a loss of the ability to move parts of his face.

Further exams were conducted using the man’s blood samples which eventually reacted in an antibody trail of the HIV group N strain.  Scientists brandish two known types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. Both are transmitted by sexual intercourse, through blood contamination, and from mother to child.  HIV-1 is predominant type worldwide while experts believe the relatively rare HIV-2 type is concentrated in West Africa and is seldom occurs elsewhere.

HIV-1 strains are classified into four subtypes – M, N, O and P.   While over 90 percent of HIV-1 infections fall under group M, N and O viral strains are believed to be extremely rare.

Meantime, in the course of their probe of the patient’s sexual background, the French doctors learned he had had intercourse with a partner in Togo from where he returned with the severe symptoms and an accelerated deterioration of his immune system.   He was administered a “powerful five-drug combination of anti-retrovirals to which he responded.”  

“This case of HIV-1 group-N primary infection indicates that this rare group is now circulating outside Cameroon, which emphasizes the need for rigorous HIV epidemiological monitoring,” Professor Francois Simon who led the research explained, recommending rigorous future vigilance to monitor the spread of the HIV strain.

The group N strain of the human immunodeficiency virus was first identified in a Cameroonian woman in 1998.  The infection later evolved to full-blown AIDS.  Ever since, more than 12,000 HIV-infected persons living in Cameroon have been tested for similar infection, with only 12 cases detected.  Scientists believe group N may have jumped to humans from chimpanzees, possibly through the handling and consumption of bushmeat infected with the simian equivalent of HIV, also known as SIV.