New HIV Strain Discovered

Scientists have discovered a new strain of HIV in a Cameroonian woman. Unlike the HIV-1 strain, which infects 33 million people worldwide and originated from a virus in chimpanzees, this strain comes from gorillas. The 62-year-old woman is being treated in France and is the only person known to be infected with the new strain. Lab studies show the virus can replicate in human cells, and since the woman had no contact with gorillas or bush meat, scientists think she caught the virus from someone else. Scientists do not know if the virus will lead to AIDS in the patient, but say because routine tests do not pick up on the new strain, the virus could be spreading “cryptically” throughout the population.