New Aggressive, Fast-Developing Strain Of Hiv Found In Cuba

[Guest 120DaysofSodom]

 

A new HIV strain identified in some patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive and faster developing than usual — developing into AIDS within three years of infection.

 

Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late, writes UPI. Without treatment, HIV infection generally takes 5 to 10 years to turn into AIDS, according to Anne-Mieke Vandamme, a medical professor at Belgium's University of Leuvan.

 

According to the study, published in the journal EBioMedicine, Vandamme was alerted to the new aggressive strain of HIV by Cuban health officials who wanted to know what was happening.

 

"So this group of patients that progressed very fast, they were all recently infected," Vandamme explained to Voice of America. "And we know that because they had been HIV negative tested one or a maximum two years before."

None of the patients had received treatment for the virus, and within three years all of the patients infected with the mutated strain of HIV had developed AIDS.

 

While fast progression of HIV to AIDS is usually the result of the patient's weak immune system rather than the particular subtype of HIV — the situation in Cuba appears to be different.  

 

"Here we had a variant of HIV that we found only in the group that was progressing fast. Not in the other two groups.

 

We focused in on this variant [and] tried to find out what was different. And we saw it was a recombinant of three different subtypes," said Vandamme.

 

The new variant, known as CRF19 is a combination of HIV subtypes A, D and G.

 

HIV infects cells by attaching itself to a co-receptor, and the transition to AIDS usually occurs when the virus switches from co-receptor CCR5 to co-receptor CXCR4, which usually takes many years.

 

But this new strain makes the switch much faster.

 

The variant has been observed in Africa, but the cases have been too few cases for researchers to fully study.

Researchers said the strain is more widespread in Cuba.

 

While the aggressive form of HIV responds to most antiretroviral drugs, people may not realize they have AIDS until it's too late for treatments to be effective. 

 

Vandamme said it's vital for people having unprotected sex with multiple partners to be tested for HIV early and often.

 

Original link: http://www.designntrend.com/articles/39949/20150214/new-aggressive-fast-developing-strain-hiv-found-cuba.htm

 

[Bttm2go]

Very interesting. Just as we are opening Cuba up. It's another reason to test every three months if you are sexually active. I just completed my annual physical and tested neg again. The other three tests I do each year are OraQuick.

[subbytch]

There's nothing new about this version of HIV. It's been studied since 1999. Modern anti-retrovirals will arrest it and PrEP will protect you from it. 

 

"Furthermore, the 2005 and 2015 article point to CRF-19’s existence in both Cuba and parts of Africa — and mention that rate of transmission in Cuba far exceeds that of transmission in Africa. While I’m not trained in epidemiology, this fact (which has largely been ignored by most news outlets) offers context: there are variables besides the type of sub-strain that might contribute to the rate and severity of seroconversion. That is to say: when “less-developed” countries in Africa aren’t experiencing the same proportional surge in CRF-19 cases, it makes you wonder about other environmental or sociological factors that could be contributing to the rapid progression from HIV to AIDS in the Cuban population sample with CFR-19.

 

Most interestingly, the recently covered 2015 article notes that 49% of the AIDS-RP (AIDS Rapid Progression) group studied identified as heterosexual, and 20% of that same population didn’t use condoms. What concerns me is the former: when we characterize HIV as a “gay” disease and when our media stigmatizes sex between men as the root causes of “incurable” diseases, partners are less communicative with each other about sexual health — especially men that are too afraid to be honest with themselves about their sexual preferences. Your sex practices are your choice: but as with any sex, bareback or wrapped, you make a choice based on the information you’re given. When we see stories about a “new” or supposedly “untreatable” virus — when we’re given catchy headlines instead of the facts — those conversations become harder to have. In an era where HIV criminalization laws are gaining popularity in the US and elsewhere, we deserve better, and need to demand science in lieu of unwarranted hysteria. At the end of the day, the shame that this fear-mongering induces in men who have sex with men seems far more dangerous to the general public than your personal preferences in the bedroom."

 

 

 

 

http://maxsohlblog.com/2015/02/17/everything-but-the-facts-hiv-panic-in-2015/