"Business as usual" for HIV screening after discovery of new strain
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Standard HIV screening will diagnose patients infected with a newly-discovered strain of the virus, but not differentiate this new strain from others, Clinica has learnt. The discovery of this fourth "P" variant of type-1 HIV – the others are known as M, which account for the vast majority of cases, O and N – in a Cameroonian woman hospitalised in Paris, was announced this week by French researchers. A spokesperson for the UK HIV and STI charity, the Terence Higgins Trust, told Clinica that current testing will diagnose infection without specifying the identity of the new strain.