It’s been a little over 30 years since HIV/AIDS first emerged as one of the deadliest diseases known to man, and in that time we’ve made great strides toward eliminating it out for good. Awareness remains high, fewer people are partaking in risky sexual behavior, and millions of people are undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART) to keep their immune systems strong. We’re fortunate to have made these advances because a newstudyhas now identified a more aggressive strain of the HIV virus.
The strain, called CRF19, has been spotted in parts of Africa, but it’s been found to be more widespread throughout Cuba. Researchers from the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium found the strain is capable of turning from an infection to full-blown AIDS within three years, a lot faster than the average conversion time period ofabout 10 years.
“We have a collaborative project with Cuba and the Cuban clinicians had noticed that they recently had more and more patients who were progressing much faster to AIDS than they were used to [seeing],” said Professor Anne-Mieke Vandamme, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Rega, according toVoice of America. “In this case, most patients had AIDS even at diagnosis.”
(Anthony Rivas – Medical Daily)
