New HIV Variant Discovered: May be More Infectious and Severe

[CellarDweller]

New HIV Variant Discovered: May be More Infectious and Severe

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that mutations in a virus can significantly change a pathogen’s infectiousness and severity of disease.

Now, new research from the University of Oxford finds a new variant of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, that is potentially more infectious and could more seriously affect the immune system.

So far, 109 people, most of whom live in the Netherlands, have the variant.

The new strain, called the VB variant, damages the immune system, weakening people’s ability to fight everyday infections and diseases much faster than the previous HIV strains, scientists say.

It also means that people who contract the new variant may develop AIDS faster.



https://www.healthline.com/health-news/n...and-severe

[Bhp91126]

But that variant was discovered decades ago already and does not trigger full-blown AIDS any faster and has not replaced the 2 original strains

[CellarDweller]

Hello Bernd.

I hadn't heard it had been around that long. It's being reported like this is a new event.

[Scruff Bunch]

Hello Bernd.

I hadn't heard it had been around that long.  It's being reported like this is a new event.

Typical misleading news media. "News"? More like "Olds".