Scientists have discovered HIV-1 group M subtype L, the first new strain of the HIV virus in 19 years. The development occurred during tests to ensure blood screening and detecting infectious diseases remain current.
Mary Rodgers, a principal scientist at Abbott, and her team published their findings Wednesday in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. According to HuffPost, Rodgers “said there was no reason for the public to be excessively concerned about the newly discovered HIV subtype, which they believe to be extremely rare.”
Dive into the discovery of this new HIV strain, the culmination of a process that began nearly four decades ago: https://t.co/bLf0qv6DGD pic.twitter.com/WjFgvloMhb
— Abbott (@AbbottNews) November 6, 2019
“If you think about the amount of material in a blood sample, it’s like a haystack of information that you could sequence. And the HIV in that sample is just a tiny part of the sample,” Rodgers told the Chicago Tribune. “So we’ve literally created technology that acts like a magnet to pull out that needle in the haystack and sequence just the virus.”
“Identifying new viruses such as this one is like searching for a needle in a haystack,” Rodgers continued. “This scientific discovery can help us ensure we are stopping new pandemics in their tracks. We can never become complacent, we need to be proactive and we’re working to stay a step ahead of the virus.”
Jonah Sacha, an immunology expert, told Scientific American: “The calling card of HIV is its diversity. That’s what’s defeated all of our attempts to create a vaccine. People think it’s not a problem anymore, and we’ve got it under control. But, really, we don’t.”
HIV-1 group M subtype L belongs to the most common HIV group—and the one that has been responsible for the majority of HIV infections. This leads scientists to believe the new strain will be treatable in similar ways to other group M infections.