Russian epidemiologists have learned to quickly identify the source of HIV

Izvestia: Rospotrebnadzor has created a method for rapid investigation of the chain of HIV infection person. It is necessary to quickly determine the chain of HIV infection and search for its source, Izvestia writes.

Russian scientists have created a method for accelerated sequencing (determining the genetic sequence of DNA and RNA) of HIV samples by analogy with that used for analysis strains SARS-CoV-2. They learned to identify individual parts of the pathogen genome, which can increase the throughput of laboratories fivefold.

Head of the Laboratory of Diagnostics and Molecular Epidemiology of HIV Infection of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Epidemiology of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology Dmitry Kireev emphasized that it is impossible to interrupt the chain of infections HIV, if the source of its spread is not investigated.

“In the course of such investigations, we compare the nucleotide sequences of virus samples with each other and identify groups of patients in whom they are very similar. If such a connection can be identified, we can say that these people form a cluster. That is, this is a group of infected, who are most likely epidemiologically related to each other, “the specialist explained.

After that, scientists analyze those who fall into this group, and understand where and in relation to whom should to carry out anti-epidemic measures. “So they will be as effective as possible,” Kireev concluded.

Earlier, scientists from Argentina and the United States recorded a second case of natural recovery from HIV. The researchers refer to this case as “Esperanza's patient.”

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