A newly identified 'highly virulent' HIV strain is 'no cause for alarm,' scientists say

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The newly identified, more infectious strain of HIV likely began circulating in the Netherlands in the 1990s and responds well to treatment, according to researchers.

An international research team has identified a highly virulent and infectious strain of HIV that likely began circulating in the Netherlands in the 1990s and has infected more than 100 people.

“The most important take-home lesson is, it’s not like a new omicron variant here and that we’re going to have a new wave of some terrible problem,” Richman said. In the end, the virus in the New York City man responded well to treatment, and no other cases of such rapidly advancing HIV were identified.

Next, the investigators cast a wider net, examining 6,706 blood samples from people with HIV participating in the separate Dutch study. There, they found an additional 92 people who, according to genetic analyses, were all living with a closely related, highly virulent HIV strain. Based on these findings, the investigators projected that without treatment, people with the highly virulent HIV strain would likely develop AIDS within just two to three years of diagnosis, compared with the more typical six to seven years expected in the comparison group.

 

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A highly virulent, but treatable, HIV strain has been quietly circulating since the '90sThe HIV variant might be more contagious, but it responds to treatment like similar strains and is not necessarily more deadly.
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