The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that mutations in a virus can significantly change a pathogen’s infectiousness and severity of disease. Now, new research from the University of Oxford finds a new variant of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, that is potentially more infectious and could more seriously affect the immune system. So far, 109 people, most of whom live in the Netherlands, have the variant.

New HIV variant causes illness twice as fast

The new strain, called the VB variant, damages the immune system, weakening people’s ability to fight everyday infections and diseases much faster than the previous HIV strains, scientists say. It also means that people who contract the new variant may develop AIDS faster. Researchers also found that VB has a viral load (the amount of virus detected in blood) 3.5 to 5.5 times higher than the current strain, indicating that it could also be more infectious.

Immune system damage occurred twice as fast

The CD4+T cell decline (a sign of immune damage by HIV) was twice as fast in people with the variant, researchers say. “By the time they were diagnosed, these individuals were vulnerable to developing AIDS within 2 to 3 years,” study authors wrote. Absent treatment, critically low CD4 cell counts “with long-term clinical consequences” is expected to happen 9 months after diagnosis on average for people in their 30s with VB variant, they said.

Testing an important tool against HIV

Asked what the variant means regarding testing recommendations for at-risk populations, William A. Haseltine, PhD, chair and president of the global health think tank ACCESS Health International, said it depends on people’s behavior. It depends on your activity, and how many different partners you have, he said, adding that people who have multiple partners should undergo HIV testing more often.

The lessons from COVID-19 is that testing is an “unappreciated weapon against viruses” and that it should remind us that by testing more regularly, we could develop new, more sophisticated, and less expensive tests.

Testing and current treatments will still control disease

There is “no evidence” that the current treatments won’t work. We can reducing the risk of infection begins with sex with a condom or other barrier method. Know your status of HIV and those you have sex with by getting tested first; use condoms for sex; don’t share any needles or paraphernalia for injection drug use. Those at higher risk can use Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Those individuals that have HIV can take their medications and be ‘undetectable’ on their viral load, which eliminates the chance of HIV transmission (U=U).

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