Kazakh official denies information that a new type of HIV arrived in Kazakhstan

A new form of HIV-1 virus has been found in Russia and cases of this type of HIV have also been registered in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported referring to Russian scholars, timesca-europe.com reports.

Research fellows of the Vector State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia found the new recombinant version of HIV-1 they call 02_AG/A. 

According to the scientists, the new form of the deadly virus is spreading fast and is likely to largely replace the existing forms of the HIV-1 virus. 

However, Director General of Kazakhstan's National Center for Prevention and Fighting AIDS, Marat Tukeyev, said that the new version of HIV-1, discovered by the Novosibirsk scientists, had never been registered in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports.

"There are nine known subtypes of HIV-1 and more that 50 various recombinant forms of HIV-1 that emerged as a result of genetic exchanges of viruses of different subtypes," he said. 

"HIV-1 A1 is the dominant subtype of the virus in Kazakhstan (56.9 percent) together with HIV-1 02_AG recombinant form (39.1 percent) that is widely spread in Central Asian countries. HIV-1 02_AG/A — the new form of the virus reported by the Russian media — has never been registered in Kazakhstan," Tukeyev said.

However he added that emergence of new recombinant forms of the virus on the territories frequented by different subtypes of the virus is a natural process. 

Clinical trends, ways of prevention and development of resistance to medications are not dependent of the subtype of HIV. "Viruses of various subtypes are similarly treated by anti-virus drugs," he added.