That hasn’t happened. In essence, they have a super spreading virus with no idea as to its source.
As to the future, Gashnikova points out in her papers that there is much work to be done both at the molecular and the sociological levels. There will be more papers and definitely more attention from epidemiologists. But there may be a time limit before the curious turns into the catastrophic.
While it appears there is little indication that the virus will spread outside of Novosibirsk at the moment, in the next few months, another area of Russia — Sochi — will be hosting the world for the Winter Olympics. If this strain somehow finds its way across the 2,000 mile distance between these two cities, then there could be a significant increase not only in the number of cases, but the overall spread worldwide.
If this happens, epidemiologists will once again be tackled with the burden of not only tracking the CRF02_AG/A strain, but also finding ways to stop it. Unfortunately, unlike SARS, MERS, H5N1 and pandemic flu, HIV has been spreading without cessation for over thirty years. As Gashnikova suggests in her articles, this problem needs to be studied and stopped as soon as possible. If not, the consequences may be far worse than imagined.
This post originally appeared at Popular Science. Copyright 2013.