Absence of the HIV-1 protective Δccr5 allele in most ethnic populations of India

Recent epidemiological data and projections indicate that HIV infection will spread rapidly in India. An allele Delta ccr5 of the beta -chemokine receptor gene CCR5 has been found to confer protection against HIV-1. We find that this protective allele is absent in most ethnic populations of India, except some populations of the northern and western regions where this allele may have been introduced by Caucasian gene flow. The implications of this finding are discussed in the light of increasing HIV prevalence in India.