Covid and HIV Together can Produce Variants
by Hamna Bano
SHARES
The evidence that supports this theory just keeps on mounting.
The team behind this research is the same one who discovered the presence of omicron. These scientists are part of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa. They found this out when they were carrying out a systematic investigation for patients with HIV and what if they were to get affected with Covid-19.
Collision of COVID-19 and HIV could generate new corona variants: scientists https://t.co/E3nnG8Ajsp
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These studies have led to the conclusion that if these patients were to get infected with this virus they might suffer from persistent coronavirus infections for longer periods of time.
The virus tends to stay in the circulation system of the patient and might become the very reason for mutation. Researchers are also suspecting that this might be the method of how other variants came into existence.
Tongai Maponga who is the lead author of this study said that "The few cases that have so far been seen and described are happening just because of random surveillance. But I think soon we will be doing something more systematic to look at, especially at these severely immunocompromised HIV patients, to see what is going on.'’
He further elaborated that "If that is the case we need to up our game with how we diagnose these people and ensure that they are getting prompt diagnosis and treatment,"
While concluding Maponga said that "We must reiterate that we do not want to cause unnecessary stigma around HIV—this is the risk we take by raising these questions, but I think we need to consider them."
