A team of researchers has discovered a new HIV strain among Cuba patients, and it's so aggressive that there may not be enough time for antiretroviral drugs to take effect.
HIV is a precursor of AIDS, but many HIV drugs these days can delay the progression for many years. If a patient doesn't receive any type of treatment, the person may develop AIDS within 6 years.
This new strain in Cuba called CRF19, however, can progress to AIDS in almost half the time, especially without treatment. One of the primary reasons is because the strain itself is composed of more than 2 subtypes.
This strain was initially discovered in Africa, but the number of cases was so small it was hard to study the actual disease.
HIV researchers from Catholic university of Leuven, led by professor Anne-Mieke Vandamme, traveled to Cuba after they have heard of unusual cases of HIV that quickly turned into AIDS.
The group then looked into the medical records of around 73 patients of Institute for Tropical Medicine Pedro Kouri. These patients used to be negative of HIV about three years prior to their diagnosis. After three years, at least 50 of them developed AIDS. None have received treatment for HIV.
They then compared the samples of the group to around 22 who now have AIDS but have been carrying the HIV virus for more than 3 years.
Although some patients do develop AIDS much faster than the others depending on how strong their immune system is, the researchers believe that the strain they found in Cuba is completely different. The degree of progression wasn't found in other samples.
This new strain poses new problems in the fight against HIV. Aside from the possibility that the anti-retroviral drugs may be already too late to delay the progression of the disease, it also poses new challenges to the development of a vaccine. The researchers then strongly recommend to have themselves tested regularly and frequently, especially if they have several partners.