According to scientists, the fight against HIV could take another turn with the emergence of a new strain. A new strain of HIV is said to be “super mutated” that makes infected people get sick twice as fast as current versions of the virus. One hundred cases have already been detected in a Scandinavian country.
The new mutant strain of HIV called Variant VB has been found by researchers at the University of Oxford. According to the Daily Mail, which deals with the information, the new virus is in the Netherlands where it has already infected 109 people. According to the researchers, the new strain destroys the immune system faster and impairs a person’s ability to fight daily infections and illnesses faster than previous versions of the virus.
In short, this new virus can lead to the rapid development of AIDS. A worrying prospect at a time when the happy news pointed to the discovery and development of a new vaccine. In fact, the study indicates that the VB variant has a viral load between 3.5 and 5.5 times higher than the current strain. This is not very good news because infected people are more likely to transmit the virus to others.
Good news in this gloom, the study confirms that people with the variant recover quickly, if treatment is offered early. In addition, they also have a similar immune system survival rate to that of other strains of HIV. Additionally, independent experts said the discovery isn’t necessarily new and we should keep our cool. According to them, VB mutant appeared in the 80s and has been in decline since 2010.
