A new, more contagious and dangerous strain of the human immunodeficiency virus, called VB, was identified by scientists at Oxford University when studying blood samples from European residents, TASS reports.
During the study of the biomaterial of the participants of the international BEEHIVE project, scientists found the same HIV variant in 17 people, named VB. The concentration of the virus in him was five times higher than normal, and immunity in such patients decreased twice as fast as usual.
15 of the 17 patients lived in the Netherlands, so scientists conducted additional studies, identifying about 200 more carriers from the Netherlands. Subsequently, it was found out that the VB strain appeared in the country in the late 80s of the last century, but its spread slowed down by 2010.
In the near future, scientists hope to find out which countries this variation of the virus has managed to penetrate and what danger it may pose. According to WHO, about 37.7 million HIV carriers live on the planet. Two-thirds of them are residents of Africa.
Earlier, scientists said that one South African woman with HIV infection had more than 20 coronavirus mutations in her body in 9 months.