New Strains of HIV Spreading in India, Scientists Warn

"While India has drastically reduced the spread of HIV over the past decade, new strains of the virus that cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are troubling medical scientists in this country," Inter Press Service reports (Devraj, 11/29). According to SciDev.Net, "[S]cientists have found new strains of the HIV-1 subtype C -- which is responsible for half of the world's HIV infections -- are evolving rapidly in this country." "The scientists, led by Udaykumar Ranga, professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, have identified five different strains of HIV-1C," the news service writes, adding, "The proportion of some of these new strains of the HIV-1C went up from two percent in 2000-2003 to 30 percent a decade later, said their