New strain of HIV found, dead in 3 years - Cuba

Disturbingly, a new strain of HIV has been found in a group in Cuba, where the HIV progresses to full blown AIDS much sooner and death comes in 2-3 years. So aggressive is this strain that antiretrovirals may come too late to do any good to treat them.

A new HIV strain in some patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive and can develop into AIDS within three years of infection.

Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late.

Without treatment, HIV infection usually 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 find out 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 all of the patients infected with the mutated strain of HIV developed AIDS within three years. Read more