New HI virus speeds AIDS

Outbreak of AIDS accelerated by new HIV virus

11/30/2013

A new strain of HI virus that causes AIDS to break out earlier was discovered by researchers in West Africa. It also shows that HI viruses form reservoirs and thus prevent a cure.

Accelerated by a year
On the occasion of the World AIDS Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow, Sunday, as it has been on every first day since 1988, HIV and AIDS are on everyone's lips. Now it has become known that a new HIV virus has been discovered in West Africa, which should lead to a faster AIDS disease. According to data from Swedish Lund University, the station "Voice of America" ​​reported that it takes about six years on average in the hitherto prevalent HIV strains, from the time of infection to the onset of AIDS. The new A3 / O2 pathogens are on average one year faster.

So far only in West Africa
The scientists discovered the new pathogen strain in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Apparently it was created from two known pathogens and is said to be widespread only in West Africa. The results so far are based on a study of more than 150 patients in Guinea-Bissau. However, further studies are planned in Europe. Thirty years ago, the French researchers Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinouss first described the HI virus, which, if untreated, causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids). The two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for the discovery of the HI virus.

Infected often without discomfort
Despite intensive research to date there is no cure for AIDS. More than 35 million people worldwide are affected by the immune deficiency. The 50% increase in HIV among young people, in particular, worries the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2001, the WHO registered 1.5 million adolescents carrying the virus, compared to 2.1 million by the end of 2012. During the acute phase of the infection, about two to three weeks after infection, nonspecific symptoms such as fever or joint pain may occur. Often infected people do not notice any symptoms and the disease can rest for several years in the body without showing any effects.

Increased risk after fresh infection
The virus is initially kept in check by the body's own defense mechanisms. But even then, an HIV-infected person can transmit the pathogen at any time to sexual partners. Since the virus concentration in the body after fresh infection is particularly high, then the risk of infecting others, the greatest. With the help of medication, although the symptoms and the onset of AIDS can be delayed, a cure is currently not possible.

Inactive pathogens stay in the immune system for years
A major problem on the way to curing an HIV infection, apparently the reservoirs of infected cells of the immune system. At the very least, an extensive review of eight patients before and during antiretriviral treatment suggests this. As a result, during treatment, inactive pathogens would persist for years in the CD4 cells of the immune system, but they do not appear to replicate. This was recently reported by an international research team led by Lina Josefsson of the Stockholm Karolinska Institute in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences ("PNAS"). In infected individuals, antiretroviral therapy may reduce the number of HI viruses below the detection limit, but treatment stops and the number of pathogens increases again. This is because the infected cells contain inactive pathogens that are not reached by the drugs. So far it is unclear where these reservoirs are exactly and what happens there.

36 million AIDS deaths
Of the world's approximately 35.3 million people who are infected with HIV or have AIDS, 22.5 million alone live in southern Africa, according to the latest estimates from the UN organization UNAIDS. In addition, according to data from UNAIDS in 2012, 1.6 million people around the world died of AIDS. Since the beginning of the pandemic in the early 1980s, there have been a total of about 36 million deaths. The number of AIDS deaths has fallen since its peak in 2005 by 30 percent.

90 percent of all infected children in southern Africa
The number of new AIDS infections has stagnated since 1990. Despite this, the United Nations AIDS Program estimates that 6,100 people a day, or 2.3 million a year, are infected with deadly immunodeficiency worldwide, despite all their efforts and educational campaigns. Of the newly infected 1.6 million alone would live in southern Africa. Especially where up to a third of women between the ages of 24 and 29 are HIV-positive, hundreds of thousands of children would be infected with the virus at birth. Of the 3.3 million infected children worldwide, about 90 percent (2.9 million) live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS.

More money in the fight against the virus
In the fight against the virus, more and more funds are invested worldwide. In contrast to 2003, when $ 3.8 billion was available, in 2012 it was already $ 18.9 billion. Developing and emerging countries are also increasingly contributing to the HIV projects. By 2015, the budget is to be increased to 22 to 24 billion dollars, according to the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. (Ad)

Picture: Aka