India's battle against AIDS is expected to become difficult with the finding by a leading geneticist that the genetic make-up of Indians is such that they are easily prone to infection by the Human Immuno deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.
Indians have all the bad genes that not only make them susceptible to HIV infection but also cause rapid progression of the infection to full blown AIDS, Narinder Mehra of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, told an international conference on genetics that ended in Delhi on Monday.
While bad genes are present on the one hand, genes that are known to protect people against HIV or delay the onset of AIDS are absent in most Indians. "This is a real danger sign," Mehra said.
"All I can say is that the genomic analysis of Indian data forecasts a possible fast spread of AIDS in India," he said.
The analysis was done using the genetic material of normal population and HIV infected cases and involved study of chemokines, cytokines, receptor genes and the so-called major histocompatibility complex genes.
According to Mehra, the subtype 0211 of the HLA-A2 gene is unique to India. which means vaccines, including the AIDS vaccine, developed for the western world would not work in at least one-third of Indians.
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