THE Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has called for an urgent need to scale up HIV treatment and testing at a global level to ensure the newly discovered HIV sub-type does not spread to the level of crippling the global health system.
By Michael Gwarisa
A newly published research from the Netherlands revealed that the HIV variant is a more transmissible and damaging variant and people living with the newly revealed HIV subtype experience double the rate of immune system decline (CD4 count) and have higher HIV viral loads (amount of virus in the blood) as well as increased vulnerability to developing AIDS two to three times faster after diagnosis than if they were living with other strains of the virus.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute, was the first to discover the subtype-B of the virus. The study also revealed that the variant has been circulating in the Netherlands for years and remains receptive to HIV treatment.
The HIV pandemic continues to take a life every minute and scientists have long worried about the evolution of new, more transmissible, variants of HIV. This newly identified variant does not represent a major public health threat but underscores the urgency of speeding up efforts to halt the HIV pandemic.
Ten million people living with HIV worldwide are not yet on treatment, fuelling the continued spread of the virus and potential for further variants,” said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme, a.i.
“We urgently need to deploy cutting-edge medical innovations in ways that reach the communities most in need. Whether it’s HIV treatment or COVID-19 vaccines, inequalities in access are perpetuating pandemics in ways that harm us all.”
