New HIV strain leapt to humans from gorillas: Study

French virologists said they had found a new subtype of the AIDS virus that appears to have jumped the species barrier to humans from gorillas.

The new strain,found in a woman from Cameroon,West Africa,is part of the HIV-1 family of microbes that account for the vast majority of cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),they said.

Until now,all have been linked to the chimpanzee.

The new subtype has been called P,adding to three established HIV-1 subtypes — M,by far the most prevalent,and O and N,which are rare.

Story continues below this ad

There is also an HIV-2 which is a minority viral family and is also suspected to have origins in non-human primates.

The virus was sequenced from a blood sample taken from an unnamed 62-year-old woman who moved to Paris from Cameroon,according to a letter published by the journal Nature Medicine.

In 2004,shortly after moving to the French capital,the woman was tested for HIV. She responded to diagnostic tests for HIV-1 but further tests failed to pinpoint the viral subtype.

The virus was genetically decoded and then put through a computer model to compare its evolutionary past against known viruses,both HIV and its equivalent in apes,called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram