Life A “highly virulent” variant of HIV-1 has been discovered in the Netherlands and according to Oxford University scientists, it appears to cause more rapid disease progression than other versions of the virus.
People infected with this variant, named VB (virulent subtype B), have an average viral load that is between 3.5 and 5.5 times higher than usual for an HIV infection. (Viral load is a measure of the level of virus in the blood.)
Their CD4 counts also decrease faster than in people infected with closely related HIV strains. (CD4 cells are a type of white blood cells that fight infection.) In other words, the immune system of a person infected with this variant declines twice as fast. As a result, they are at risk of developing Aids more quickly, the researchers reported in their paper, published in Science.
People infected with the VB variant also showed an increased risk of transmitting the virus to others, a news release by the university’s Big Data Institute (BDI) explained…
