Mutated strains of HIV that have made the virus progress faster are circulating in the Canadian providence Saskatchewan.
After hearing anecdotal evidence from the population in Saskatchewan, where HIV rates rank among the highest in North America, scientists from Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University decided to investigate.
“Physicians were saying, ‘There’s something going on here that isn’t right, people are getting sick very, very fast,’” Zabrina Brumme, the lead author of the study,
She thought that it was almost as if there might have been something particularly nasty about the virus.
The researchers analyzed 70 mutations and discovered that more than 98 percent of HIV sequences collected in the area recently had at least one major immune-resistant mutation.
The findings, published in the scientific journal Aids, looked closely at Saskatchewan, where HIV rates in 2016 exceeded the national average tenfold in some places.
The virus disproportionately impacts the indigenous population. About 80 percent of those infected in the province are indigenous. However, Brumme warned that these HIV strains in Saskatchewan have the potential to cause more rapid disease in all people, despite ethnic background. “This isn’t a health issue restricted to a specific group of people, this is news that there’s a pathogen; strains are nastier in this location,” she said.
While the results of their study come with concerning news, HIV treatment is fully active against these strains, said Jeffrey Joy, a researcher with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids,
“If people get on treatment, they’re going to have the same outcome as anyone else,” he said. “And have the secondary benefit of not passing those strains on to other people.”
After the release of their findings, the researchers hope to travel back to the Canadian province to encourage testing for early detection and treatment.
