Prince Harry comparing HIV to covid an 'easy headline' says Bell
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STIs may be on the rise after testing efforts were hampered by Covid disruptions, which is a critical tool in controlling the spread of disease. Caught early, however, the majority of STIs are curable. But despite significant gains in HIV research, no cure has yet been found for the virus. What’s more, scientists have now discovered a new sub-variant of HIV, dubbed VB, which has infected more than 100 people in the Netherlands.
The “exceptionally virulent” mutant, which was only recently discovered, can be picked up with existing tests and responds to treatments, according to scientists.
To date, 109 people are known to be infected with the sub-variant, all but two of whom live in the Netherlands.
In a recent study led by Oxford University, researchers found VB damaged the immune system and weakened a person’s ability to fight everyday infections.
The findings also appear to suggest that someone who contracts the virus may go on to develop AIDS more quickly.
READ MORE: HIV symptoms: The early warning found in a person’s mouth – what to look out for
When left untreated, HIV gradually infects immune cells, hampering immune defences against other infections, which eventually results in AIDS.
By tracking the sub-variant’s mutations with each new infection, researchers established it took only nine months before a newly diagnosed patient in their 30s reached the advanced stage of HIV.
For most other variants of HIV – or human immunodeficiency virus – it takes three years to reach this advanced stage.
The study offered no evidence that the symptoms of the variant are different to those of its predecessor.
Symptoms of HIV are wide-ranging and can differ greatly from case to case, but an acute infection is generally characterised by fever, chills, rash, night sweats, muscle aches, sore throat and fatigue.
Because of this rapid decline in immunity after infection, early diagnosis and treatment are critical.
Fortunately, the study established that the variant had a similar immune system recovery and survival time to other HIV variants.
Scientists, who detailed their discovery in the medical journal Science, said: “Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain.
“Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in 1990 for de novo mutation, not recombination, with increase transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence.”
HIV mutates in a similar fashion to Covid – but alterations of the virus have seldom made a difference to its nature.
The latest study, however, established that VB spread faster than other strains of HIV during the 2000s before declining since 2010 in response to treatment becoming widely available.
The findings are the result of an international collaboration between the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute and the Dutch HIV Monitoring Foundation.
The researchers analysed genetic variants in sequences in HIV samples from more than 6,700 positive cases.
The lead author of the study, Doctor Chris Wymant, who is a senior researcher in statistical genetics at Oxford University, said: “Before this study, the genetics of the HIV virus were known to be relevant for virulence, implying that the evolution of a new variant could change its impact on health.
“Discovery of the VB variant, demonstrated this, providing a rare example of the risk posed by virus virulence evolution.”
The analysis, however, failed to reveal why the sub-variant is more infectious.
Professor Jonathan Stoye, virologist at the Francis Crick Institute, added: “ [The variant] doesn’t seem to have spread very widely or infected more people than we’d typically see with other variants.
“There are always trade-offs between the speed of virus replication and transmissibility.
“It has to be able to replicate to high levels to transmit, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to predominate.
“There aren’t any rules or we don’t know the rules that will tell us whether a given virus with a given set of properties will actually succeed in the evolution game. Whether it will grow and out-compete other variants, we don’t know.”
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