You Must Know This Deadly Virus! HIV virus and its variants from its family

HIV is a human immunodeficiency virus. HIV stands for English (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that can cause AIDS.

This virus attacks humans and attacks the body's immune system (immunity), so that the body becomes weak against infection against various diseases. Without treatment, a person with HIV can survive 9-11 years after infection, depending on the type. In other words, the presence of this virus in the body will cause a deficiency (deficiency) of the immune system.

Transmission of the HIV virus can be through the distribution of semen (reproduction), blood, vaginal fluids, and breast milk. HIV works by killing important cells needed by humans, one of which is helper T cells, Macrophages, and dendritic cells.

In 2014, the Joint United Nation Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) provided a red report card to Indonesia regarding the response to HIV / AIDS. New patients have increased by 47 percent since 2005. Deaths due to AIDS in Indonesia are still high, because only 8 percent of people living with HIV AIDS (PLWHA) are receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARV).

Indonesia is the third country in the world with the highest number of HIV sufferers, namely 640,000 people, after China and India, because these three countries have a large population. It's just that the prevalence in Indonesia is only 0.43 percent or still below the epidemic level of one percent.

History

In 1983, Jean Claude Chermann and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi from France succeeded in isolating HIV for the first time from a person with lymphadenopathy syndrome. At first, the virus was called ALV (lymphadenopathy-associated virus). Together with Luc Montagnier, they proved that the virus was the cause of AIDS.

In early 1984, Robert Gallo from the United States also researched the virus that causes AIDS called HTLV-III. After further investigation, it was proven that ALV and HTLV-III were the same virus and in 1986, the term used to refer to the virus was HIV, or more specifically it was called HIV-1.

Not long after HIV-1 was discovered, a new subtype was identified in Portugal of a patient who came from West Africa and was later called HIV-2. Through cloning and sequence analysis (genetic makeup), HIV-2 is 55% different from HIV-1 and is antigenically different. The other biggest difference between the two virus strains lies in the sheath glycoproteins. Follow-up studies suggest that HIV-2 originates from SIV (a retrovirus that infects primates) because of the similarity in sequences and cross-reactions between antibodies against the two viruses.

Classification

The two HIV species that infect humans (HIV-1 and -2) originally originated in west and central Africa, moving from primates to humans in a process known as zoonosis. HIV-1 is an evolutionary product of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz) found in the chimpanzee subspecies, Pan troglodyte troglodyte. Meanwhile, HIV-2 is a virus species evolved from a different strain of SIV (SIVsmm), found in Sooty mangabey, Guinea-Bissau old world monkey. Most HIV infections in the world are caused by HIV-1 because this virus species is more virulent and more infectious than HIV-2. Meanwhile, HIV-2 is mostly still confined in West Africa.

Based on its genetic makeup, HIV-1 is divided into three main groups, namely M, N, and O. The HIV-1 M group consists of 16 different subtypes. Meanwhile, in groups N and O, it is not clear the number of virus subtypes incorporated in them. However, both groups are related to the SIV of chimpanzees. HIV-2 has 8 types of subtypes that are thought to come from different Sooty mangabey.

When several HIV viruses with different subtypes infect the same individual, a circulating recombinant form (CRF) will occur. Parts of the genome of several different HIV subtypes will combine to form a new intact genome.

The first recombinant forms found were recombinant AG from central and western Africa, then recombinant AGI from Greece and Cyprus, then recombinant AB from Russia and AE from Southeast Asia. Of all HIV infections in the world, as many as 47% of cases were caused by subtype C, 27% were CRF02_AG, 12.3% were subtype B, 5.3% were subtype D and 3.2% were CRF AE, while the rest came from subtype and CRF. other.

That's the least information about the deadly virus we can collect. Hopefully it will be a source of useful knowledge.