VB variant: What we know about the new highly virulent HIV strain found in the Netherlands

A new highly virulent strain of HIV has been discovered in the Netherlands by researchers at Oxford University.

Scientists believe that what they call the ‘VB variant’ has been in circulation since the late 1980s.

Fortunately, they found that modern treatments are effective against the strain as individuals with the variant had similar immune system recovery and survival to individuals with other HIV variants and the research team stressed that the findings are no cause for alarm.

Individuals infected with the new VB variant showed significant differences before treatment compared with individuals infected with other HIV variants.

Individuals with the VB variant had between 3.5 to 5.5 times higher levels of the virus in their blood.

In addition, the rate of CD4 cell decline - the hallmark of immune system damage by HIV - occurred twice as fast in individuals with the VB variant, placing them at risk of developing AIDS much more rapidly.

Individuals with the newly-discovered variant also showed an increased risk of transmitting the virus to others.

The VB variant was first identified in 17 HIV positive individuals from the BEEHIVE project, an ongoing study which collects samples from across Europe and Uganda.

Since 15 of these people came from the Netherlands, the researchers then analysed data from a cohort of over 6,700 HIV positive individuals in the Netherlands.

This identified an additional 92 individuals with the variant, from all regions of the Netherlands, bringing the total to 109.

The individuals with the VB variant showed typical characteristics for people living with HIV in the country, including age, sex, and suspected mode of transmission.

Researchers say this indicates that the increased transmissibility of the VB