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In France, a rare type of HIV group N
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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A man from France who recently went to Togo was diagnosed with a rare type of HIV infection - Group N. This is the first time that this type of HIV infection was discovered outside of Cameroon. HIV of group N is very similar to the virus found in chimpanzees.
Professor Francois Simon of the St. Louis Hospital in Paris and his team from the National HIV Center in Rouen (France) described this rare case in the journal Lancet.
In Europe, HIV is spread from the M group or, more rarely, from the O. Group. The first person diagnosed with the HIV diagnosis of group N in 1998 was a woman from Cameroon. Since then, only 12 cases of HIV in Group N have been diagnosed and all in Cameroon. In 2009, the fourth group of the immunodeficiency virus (group P), identified by a Cameroonian woman who lives in Paris, was identified.
Eight days after returning from Togo, a 57-year-old man living in France applied to the emergency department of St. Louis Hospital with complaints of rash, fever, genital ulcers and enlargement of the lymph nodes. After learning about the sexual contact of the patient with Togolese partner, doctors suspected HIV infection. After the HIV test, the scientists were shocked to find that the virus did not coincide with the standard types of HIV prevalent in France.
The authors explain that the type of HIV infection in group N is particularly dangerous due to severe clinical manifestations and an early decrease in the number of CD4 + T cells.
Antiretroviral therapy in combination with five drugs demonstrated good treatment effectiveness, although scientists need further long-term virological and immunological studies.
This reported case of HIV-N indicates that a rare strain of HIV infection outside Cameroon is now spreading across Europe, which underscores the need for thorough epidemiological monitoring of HIV infection.
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