HIV Vulnerability Linked to Spread of Roman Empire
People living in countries once ruled by the Roman Empire may be more susceptible to HIV infection, NewScientist.com reports.
According to the article, those hailing from countries such as England, Greece, France and Spain are less likely to carry a gene variant—called CCR5-Delta32—that produces a protein receptor HIV cannot bind to. Those who carry this variation have shown to have some resistance to infection, with slower progression to full-blown AIDS than those without it.
Researchers are unsure as to how this genetic difference originated, but some speculate that occupying Romans may have introduced a contagion that people with the variant were particularly susceptible to. Gene prevalence suggests that as the Romans moved their empire north, the disease may have wiped out people with the variant. More than 15 percent of people in certain areas of northern Europe carry the genetic variation compared with 4 percent of Greeks
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Luis Lopez-Detres, New York, 2008-09-09 10:04:22
This article is wrongly written when it says "CCR5-Delta32—that produces a protein receptor HIV cannot bind to." In fact is the Delta 32 deletion the reason why CCR5 is not produced and therefore, HIV can not bind to.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
