Oxford researchers announced Thursday the discovery of a highly virulent strain of HIV that has been lurking in the Netherlands for decades, but because of the effectiveness of modern treatments, is “no cause for alarm.” The analysis was published in the journal Science,
The study showed that patients infected with what they call the “VB variant” had 3.5 to 5.5 times higher levels of the virus in their blood than those infected with other variants, as well as a more rapidly fading immune system. The new study also found that after starting treatment, individuals with the VB variant had similar immune system recovery and survival to individuals with other HIV variants.
The work also supports the theory that viruses can evolve to become more virulent, a widely-hypothesized idea for which few real-world examples have been found.The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus was another recent example. The discovery of the HIV variant should therefore “be a warning that we should never be overconfident about saying viruses will just evolve to become milder. The team found 109 people infected with the VB variant, with only four living outside the Netherlands, but still in western Europe.
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