A new article was published in the international scientific journal Icelandic Agricultural Sciences. The article, which is a summary article, is called Shortness of breath and HIV: There are many similarities between responsibilities and is by Valgerður Andrésdóttir. The summary of the article states: Shortness-of-breath virus infects sheep and mainly causes pneumonia (shortness of breath) and encephalitis (withered). The virus is a lentivirus that causes a slow-growing disease and is closely related to the HIV virus.
The viruses have many things in common, such as the organization of genetic material, the activity and type of viral proteins, the multiplication process, the host's response to infection and the dormant infection, which the host never gets rid of. Both viruses infect the cells of the immune system; dyspnoea virus infects phagocytes, whereas HIV infects both phagocytes and T-lymphocytes. In the review article, various similarities with these viruses are discussed.
Withering and shortness of breath are sheep diseases that came to the country with the import of Karakúlfé in 1933 and caused a great deal of livelihood in the Icelandic sheep farming. As a result, in 1948 the Keldur Experimental Station was established to carry out research on these and other animal diseases, but withered and shortness of breath was eliminated with cuts that ended in 1965. Björn Sigurðsson, the first director of the Experimental Station, directed research on these diseases, and set presented theories about a new category of infectious diseases, slow-moving infectious diseases. The dyspnoea virus is in this category but also the HIV virus and research on the dyspnoea virus has provided important information on the biology of HIV.
It is a great blessing to have received this overview article, which is basically based on some of the most remarkable research and discoveries that have come from Icelandic scholars.