SA scientists probe links between Omicron and untreated HIV

Researchers have already observed that Covid-19 can linger for many months in patients who are HIV positive but who have, for varying reasons, not been taking the medicines that would enable them to lead healthy lives.
But, as they push ahead with their research, the scientists are anxious to avoid further stigmatising people living with HIV, both in South Africa - home to the world's largest HIV epidemic - and globally.
South African scientists are now investigating the "highly plausible hypothesis" that the emergence of new Covid-19 variants could be linked, in some cases, to mutations taking place inside infected people whose immune systems have already been weakened by other factors, including, though not limited to, untreated HIV.
There is currently no evidence that any of the current Covid variants of concern have emerged in Africa, although the sudden arrival in southern Africa of a variant as transmissible as Omicron has fuelled speculation that it may be linked to someone local with a compromised immune system.