Several studies have found that people with weakened immune systems – such as untreated HIV patients – can suffer from persistent coronavirus infections, often for months. The virus remains in their systems and accumulates mutations.
Some researchers believe this could be how Omicron and some other variants of Covid-19 developed, although other scientists believe it may have arisen in animals before moving on to humans.
“The few cases that have been seen and described so far are due to random surveillance”said Tongai Maponga, a researcher at the University of Stellenbosc. “But I think we’ll soon do something more systematic to look especially at these severely immunocompromised HIV patients, to see what’s going on.”
He said the work would focus on two elements: on patients and how their systems deal with infection, and whether new variants are likely to emerge in this way.
Saoirse Fitzpatrick, advocacy director at StopAids, said the pandemic has “severely” affected HIV testing around the world, but addressing both public health challenges is critical.
“A response to COVID that sets aside the response to HIV is not a sufficient public health approach”he claimed.
The number of patients involved in this phase was unclear.
Maponga added: “We need to reiterate that we don’t want to cause unnecessary stigma around HIV, this is the risk we take by raising these issues, but I think we need to take them into account.”
Source: Ambito
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