The University of Oxford’s researchers has discovered a new dangerous and highly transmissible HIV strain that has confirmed scientists’ worst expectations that the new HIV mutations could make the virus even more infectious and more dangerous.
After analyzing more than 6,700 positive samples the international collaborative study led by Oxford’s Big Data Institute identified 109 cases of the new ‘virulent subtype B’ (VB) variant that presents with significant genome differences compared to other HIV variants.
Although the number of identified VB cases is relatively small, scientists believe that the actual figure is likely to be higher.
In the results published in the journal Science, they say that individuals with the VB strain had 3.5 to 5.5 times higher viral load (the level of the virus in the blood). These patients have also demonstrated an increased risk of transmitting the virus to other people.
The study also shows that individuals with the VB variant have also been placed at risk of developing AIDS much more rapidly since they experienced twice as fast decline rate of CD4 cell decline, which is the hallmark of immune system damage by HIV.
Having this fact in mind, it’s critical that individuals are diagnosed early and start treatment as soon as possible to prevent the more rapid deterioration of the immune system defenses.
This also makes crucial the importance of frequent testing for at-risk individuals.
However, scientists note that the reassuring fact, in this case, is that the VB variant carriers had similar immune system recovery and survival rates as patients with other HIV variants after initiating treatment.
Another reassuring fact is that the VB variant’s spread has been in decline since around 2010, following its emergence during the late 1980s and 1990s, and its more rapid spread in the 2000s.
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS’s data shows it already affects 38 million people worldwide.
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