New HIV strain discovered in West Africa leads much sooner to Aids
A new and more aggressive strain of HIV discovered in West Africa causes significantly faster progression to Aids, researchers at Sweden's Lund University said.
The new strain of the virus that causes Aids, called A3/02, is a fusion of the two most common HIV strains in Guinea-Bissau. It has so far only been found in West Africa.
"Individuals who are infected with the new recombinant form develop Aids within five years, and that's about two to two-and-a-half years faster than one of the parent (strains)," said Angelica Palm, one of the scientists responsible for the study based on a long-term follow-up of HIV-positive people in Guinea-Bissau.
Recombinant virus strains originate when a person is infected by two different strains, whose DNA fuse to create a new form.
"There have been some studies that indicate that whenever there is a so-called recombinant, it seems to be more competent or aggressive than the parental strains," said Palm of the study published on Thursday in the
The strain was first discovered by the Swedish team in Guinea-Bissau in 2011.
According to researchers, the speed with which A3/02 leads to people falling ill from Aids-related diseases does not impact on the effectiveness of medication.
"The good news is that as far as we know the medicines that are available today are equally functional on all different subtypes of variants," Palm said.
