The most virulent HIV variant known to science has been discovered in the Netherlands, according to researchers who said it provided a valuable insight into the way viruses such as the one behind Covid-19 can evolve.
People infected with the VB variant, as it is known, have an average viral load that is about four times higher than is usual for HIV infection and their immune system declines twice as fast, placing them at risk of developing Aids more quickly.
Scientists at Oxford university’s Big Data Institute, who announced the discovery with Dutch colleagues in the journal Science, said that the VB variant was not a threat to public health because the antiretroviral therapy used routinely to treat people with HIV works effectively against the new variant.