The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

A NEW strain of HIV that rapidly progresses into AIDS has become an “epidemic” among newly infected patients in Cuba, according to a study released this week.

The new Human Immunodeficiency Virus strain is a combination of three subtypes of the virus and can progress to full blown AIDS within three years untreated – double the rate of the average strain that advances in six to 10 years.

While researchers have identified more than 60 strains of HIV, this new strain is worrisome because it rapidly closes the window of time that infected persons have to seek antiretroviral therapy that would prevent the onset of AIDS.

It also raises concerns that mutated HIV strains could present serious setbacks to the development of a vaccine because they are more difficult to diagnose and could become resistant to therapy.

The study was published in the medical journal EBioMedicine by a team of researchers, who travelled to the island after local clinicians reported an increasing number of HIV infections that rapidly progressed to AIDS.

“To investigate this potentially increased proportion of patients with rapid progression to AIDS over the last decade in Cuba,” the study said, “we set up an exploratory study evaluating the association of rapid progression with epidemiological, clinical, viral and immunological parameters, comparing three groups of patients.

“The first two groups were newly diagnosed patients with an HIV negative test less than three years earlier, recruited prospectively, who within three years after seroconversion either were already diagnosed with AIDS or were still AIDS-free and chronically infected HIV-1 patients with AIDS recruited retrospectively.”

According to the Chicago Tribune, Hector Bolivar, a physician and infectious disease specialist with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said the HIV research community has long known about the virus’ capacity to mutate and create new versions.

Mr Bolivar said the study was concerning for South Florida given the large Cuban migrant community in Miami; however, he noted that he had misgivings about its methodology and whether the sample size was large enough to extrapolate findings.

Yesterday, local health officials declined to comment on the findings.

Dr Glen Beneby, chief medical officer within the Ministry of Health, said he was unaware of the discovery and would make a statement or revert to the relevant authority after he had thoroughly researched the claims.

In a later email, Dr Beneby confirmed that the report was authentic, adding that the National HIV Programme will be expected to share the information with the public in an appropriate manner.