Bahamas News
UNAIDS announces new HIV Variant
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
A new, more transmissible, more damaging variant of HIV has been discovered. The research which came out of the Netherlands reveals that people with the new HIV subtype have double the rate of immune system decline, more of the virus in their blood and are developing AIDS two to three times faster, the Joint United Nations Programme on
The study led by researchers from Oxford’s big data Institute discovered the subtype B of HIV, apparently, the variant has been in the Netherlands for years, but remains receptive to HIV treatment.
This newly identified variant does not represent a major public health threat but underscores the urgency in speeding up efforts to halt the HIV pandemic.
All eyes are on Moderna (pharmaceutical) now and their HIV vaccine which could provide a way out of the deadliest pandemic the world has ever seen.
Some 79 million people have lost their lives to HIV since the 1980s when it was discovered.