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I might be late to the party on this one, but the story is sobering:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/02/16/scientists-find-new-aggressive-strain-hiv-in-cuba/?intcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork

God I hope it never finds its way to Dallas. That would just about do it for civilization.


Too soon?

Surely the mutation is a blessing in disguise. If it shows symptoms quicker thats less time people unknowingly spread it. I thought the primary thing that made AIDS so deadly was that it has such a long incubation period?

Dropbear Victim wrote:
Surely the mutation is a blessing in disguise. If it shows symptoms quicker thats less time people unknowingly spread it. I thought the primary thing that made AIDS so deadly was that it has such a long incubation period?

Uh, the primary thing that makes it so deadly is that it ravages your immune system, and there's no cure. That second one being the real crux of the disease.

AIDS doesn't kill you, but your body's inability to fight off the common cold, or pneumonia, after it goes Attila the Hun on your cell count, etc. is what does.


The long incubation period is what leads to it's fairly pervasive spreading, because you may be infected for a comparatively long time without knowing it. As lots of people (certainly not all, but lots) that get AIDS engage in risky behaviors (whether due to lack of education in some places, or just risky behavior period), it's likely that such behaviors in many cases will continue, passing the virus on, etc.

 Haight wrote:

Dropbear Victim wrote:
Surely the mutation is a blessing in disguise. If it shows symptoms quicker thats less time people unknowingly spread it. I thought the primary thing that made AIDS so deadly was that it has such a long incubation period?

Uh, the primary thing that makes it so deadly is that it ravages your immune system, and there's no cure. That second one being the real crux of the disease.

AIDS doesn't kill you, but your body's inability to fight off the common cold, or pneumonia, after it goes Attila the Hun on your cell count, etc. is what does.


The long incubation period is what leads to it's fairly pervasive spreading, because you may be infected for a comparatively long time without knowing it. As lots of people (certainly not all, but lots) that get AIDS engage in risky behaviors (whether due to lack of education in some places, or just risky behavior period), it's likely that such behaviors in many cases will continue, passing the virus on, etc.

Actually he made a good point. It is a "blessing in disguise". I think you understand his point, if not....

If average HIV person infect others before they know they have AIDS because they have no symptom is 1 person a year and it takes 7 years for HIV to form AIDS... They that person would infect 7 people.

This Cuban strain...takes only 3 years...so the average would be 3 infection before being detected.

If only the infection show symptom really fast like " zombie virus" AIDS would have vanish a while back, but shorter life for the infected.

HIV, by its nature, mutates at an obserdly quick rate, which is why it's such a pain in the ass. As far as your average person is concerned, this is sorta non-news. It isn't hugely relevant which strain of HIV you get, as you're screwed no matter what it is.

It appears the only way to get this variant of AIDS is in laymans terms to get AIDS twice.

A recombinant strain doesn't really change an existing outcome, just speeds it up a little.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
God I hope it never finds its way to Dallas. That would just about do it for civilization.


Too soon?

9/30/14, never forget.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
God I hope it never finds its way to Dallas. That would just about do it for civilization.


Too soon?

There's no civilization in Texas...

I can see what Dropbear means. Less time to unknowingly infect others.

And Da Kommie plot is finally revealed.

Wow, people still get AIDS?

Weird article, and I'm trying to figure out if it was actually written by someone who knows the science or if it is a lay-person's interpretation of a scientific article.

The biggest things that jumped out at me was this:

In a normal HIV infection, the virus attaches to proteins on the membranes of cells known as CCR5 before it is able to penetrate the cell. The HIV-infected patient may experience a number of healthy years before the virus becomes CXCR4, which quickly progresses to AIDS, according to the report.

In the new Cuban strain, researchers found that HIV makes the transition to CXCR4 more quickly than in the other strains, resulting in a shorter number of “healthy” years. The new strain can cause AIDS to appear within just three years of infection, Medical News Today reported.

HIV never becomes CXCR4. CCR5 and CXCR4 are both receptor sites where HIV attaches to T-cells, and HIV has always attached to both. The virus really doesn't change from one site, then to the next, then becomes AIDS, and then you die. HIV attaches to whatever it attaches to, and it might have a higher affinity to one receptor over the other although usually both are co-receptors, and reproduces in that cell which kills it in the process. It's that cell death, not the specific attachment to either receptor site, that eventually causes you to progress into AIDS. Some viruses prefer CCR5, some prefer CXCR4, and some viruses are able to attach to both.

So like I said, that choice of words in the article makes it a bit suspect. The article refers to a different article on a site called Medical News Today, and it seems that that article manages to correctly state that CXCR4 is a receptor site used by HIV and doesn't state that HIV becomes CXCR4. It does go on to state that HIV first uses one site, then the other, and that a faster switch is the cause for faster progression. The site does however link to the original source: an article in EBioMedicine.

Best I could tell is that the "earlier switch" doesn't refer to the virus itself switching during the infection, but an "earlier switch" in the genetic makeup prior to the current infection. The final conclusion of the study is summarized as:

We propose that an evolutionary very fit CRF19_cpx together with co-infections is linked to the increase of rapid progression to AIDS in newly infected patients in Cuba. The robust and significant associations with a fitter protease, more circulating virus, higher immune-activation and CXCR4 co-receptor use suggest that CRF19_cpx may be a more pathogenic virus.

Sounds like less of a super-virus, and more like a case of "bad mix of viruses". It's not a completely new phenomenon, and it is something that the medical community has been fighting for a while in the HIV community. There are instances where HIV positive people have unprotected sex with each other thinking "I already have HIV, so I can't get infected again", but they don't understand that there are many different types of HIV and that they can combine to create a virus that makes them sicker quicker. So instead of getting AIDS in 10 years they get AIDS in 5 years. They may also be infected with one of the CCR5 using viruses, which is very responsive to medications that targed the CCR5 site to block attachment, and end up with a co-infection that uses the CXCR4 site which makes their medication a lot less effective.

The study needs a lot of follow up, and while it is pretty interesting it doesn't really jump out at me as a big threat at this time.