The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) strains found in India and South Africa are identical, said noted researcher Hoosen Coovadia on Wednesday.
A South African scientist credited with leading ground-breaking research into preventing HIV transmission from mother to infant, Dr. Coovadia said the ‘C’ sub-type of the virus is found in both South Africa and India. The dominant strains in other parts of the world, including the United States and Europe, are E and O, he explained. “Not only do the two countries share the same sub-type, the molecular architecture of the strains found in South Africa and India are identical,” he said.
Dr. Coovadia was speaking to The Hindu before delivering a continuing medical education (CME) talk on ‘How HIV travelled from South Africa to India: a story of infectious diseases throughout the world and through time’, organised by Asha Kirana, a hospital engaged in providing healthcare for HIV/AIDS patients in the city.
The India-SA link
The scientist traced the reason for South Africa and India having the same sub-type of HIV to migratory patterns between the two countries. Himself a migrant, Dr. Coovadia, whose forefathers moved to South Africa in the 1880s, said his theory is that migrants settled in South Africa had brought HIV to India.
Speaking on the origin of HIV and AIDS, which surfaced in 1980s before gripping South Africa like an epidemic, Dr. Coovadia said the virus is compared to one found in chimpanzees in Cameroon. “It is the same virus in animal form,” he said. While the virus in human beings is called HIV, the virus found in chimpanzees is called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV).
He said the African population used to eat monkeys regularly. “When it was eaten half-cooked with blood, one of these SIVs probably may have mutated and entered human beings,” he said.
Explaining that HIV can spread explosively, Dr. Coovadia said the virus may have come to Durban from Cameroon before reaching India and China. He also said scientific evidence indicates that the HIV outbreak happened only in the 20th Century, ruling out the possibility of the disease affecting people earlier.
Dr. Coovadia, now an Emeritus Professor in the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, was accompanied by his wife Dr. Zubeida Hamed, a skin specialist.
Dr. Coovadia said the ‘C’ sub-type of the virus is found
in both South Africa and India
