
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993                   TAG: 9312150029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TEEN GOT 2 AIDS STRAINS FROM BROTHER

A hemophiliac who passed the AIDS virus to his younger brother, probably by sharing a razor, actually gave the teen-ager two strains of the disease, researchers reported Tuesday.

The two strains do not affect the youth's prognosis, but the case illustrates a new hurdle for scientists trying to trace the source of AIDS infections.

"This doesn't have implications for patients," said Dr. Harold Jaffe of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But it makes the case interesting academically. Testing for more than one strain in transmission isn't routinely done."

Two weeks ago, the CDC confirmed that the older brother infected the younger. It released the first details of the case Tuesday.

The brothers live with a hemophiliac uncle. He and his 24-year-old nephew were diagnosed with HIV in 1985. Both got the virus from tainted blood, which was not tested for HIV until that year.

The 19-year-old brother got HIV in 1991. His brother appeared to be the source, Jaffe said, because they shared a razor and may have shared blood infusion equipment.

But the dominant HIV strain in the older brother's blood did not match the dominant HIV strain in the younger brother.

So researchers mapped the genes of all the HIV in both brothers. Each had two strains that matched, except the dominant strain in one brother was the minor strain in the other and vice versa, said the CDC's Dr. C.C. Luo.

by CNB