A 60-year-old woman of a dalit community in Jogbuda VDC) of Dadeldhura district has tested positive for HIV-2 giving health officials a food for thought as to how the disease entered Nepal. [break]
HIV-2 is less virulent and infective than HIV-1 which has caused the majority of HIV infections globally. The lower infectivity and relatively poor capacity for transmission of HIV-2 have largely confined it to Africa while the more virulent and infective HIV-1 has spread across the globe.
The elderly had come to Seti Zonal Hospital with suspected HIV infection. After initial tests at the hospital, her blood was sent to Bangko, Thailand, for confirmation. "The tests in Shree Raj Hospital in Bangkok have confirmed that she has HIV-2 infection," chief of the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) Center in Seti Zonal Hospital Dr Rajya Shree Kunwar said.
"This virus is seen only in Africa. We are surprised at finding it here in Nepal," Dr Kunwar added. "We have no medicines for HIV-2 in Nepal and are therefore giving her those used in HIV-1," she conceded.
The woman´s husband had gone to India for work a few years after their marriage. He didn´t come home and returned only 10 years ago after working for 28 years. He had died two years later.
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