Engaging in unprotected sex with multiple partners increases the risk of contracting multiple strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Once inside a host, these strains can recombine into a new variant of the virus. One such recombinant variant observed in patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive than other known forms of HIV. Patients progress to AIDS within three years of infection - so rapidly that they may not even realise they were infected. 
 
 Before it can enter human cells, HIV must first anchor itself to them. The virus does this via anchor points, or co-receptors, which are proteins on the cell membrane. In a normal infection, the virus first uses the anchor point CCR5. In many patients, after a number of healthy years, the virus then switches to the anchor point CXCR4. This co-receptor switch coincides with a faster progression to AIDS. 
 
 Writing in the journal EBioMedicine, researchers at KU Leuven's Laboratory for Clinical and Epidemiological Virology now report a recombinant form of HIV observed in patients in Cuba that makes this transition much faster. The virus targets the anchor point CXCR4 early after infection, shortening drastically the healthy phase and triggering rapid progression to AIDS. 
 
 Professor Anne-Mieke Vandamme and an international team of researchers studied the blood of 73 recently-infected patients - 52 at AIDS diagnosis and 21 without AIDS - and compared results with blood from 22 patients who had progressed to AIDS after a normal healthy period with HIV. 
 
 In the patients infected with the HIV recombinant, the researchers observed abnormally high doses of the virus and of the defensive molecule RANTES. This molecule is part of our natural immune response and acts through binding to CCR5, to which most forms of HIV have to bind before entering the cell. 
 
 The high concentration of RANTES suggests that most of the CCR5 proteins were no longer available as anchor points for HIV. This may have caused the HIV recombinant to bypass that anchor point and go straight to anchor point CXCR4. The observation that all study patients who were infected with the recombinant HIV variant went on to develop AIDS within three years of infection supports this theory. 
 
 The transition from anchor point CCR5 to CXCR4 is normally very difficult. The researchers suspect that the rapid transition observed in this HIV recombinant occurs as a result of combining fragments from different HIV subtypes. One of these fragments contains a protease (from subtype D), which acts very efficiently. Protease is an enzyme that cleaves the proteins that are used in new virus particles. This protease is very 'fit' - it enables the virus to replicate in greater numbers hence facilitating the transition to CXCR4 anchoring. 
 
 The unexpectedly rapid progression of this HIV variant increases the risk that patients become very ill before ever realising that they are infected. 
 
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 Scientists have discovered a highly aggressive new strain of HIV in Cuba that develops into AIDS three times faster than more common strains of the virus. This finding could have serious public health implications for efforts to contain and reduce incidences of the virus worldwide. 
 
 Researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium say the HIV strain CRF19 can progress to AIDS within two to three years of exposure to virus. Typically, HIV takes approximately 10 years to develop into AIDS. Patients with CRF19 may start getting sick before they even know they've been infected, which ultimately means there's a significantly shorter time span to stop the disease's progression. 
 
 The scientists began studying the cases in Cuba when reports began coming in that a growing number of HIV-infected patients were developing AIDS just three years after diagnosis with the virus. The findings of their study were published in the journal EBioMedicine. 
 
 Having unprotected sex with multiple partners can expose a person to numerous strains of the HIV virus. Research has found that when this occurs, the different strains can combine and form a new variant of the virus. 
 
 When HIV first enters the human body it latches on to anchor points of a certain protein, known as CCR5 on the cell membranes, which then allows it to enter human cells. Eventually the virus then latches onto another protein of the cell membrane, known as CXCR4. This marks the point when asymptomatic HIV becomes AIDS. In CRF19, the virus makes this move much sooner. 
 
 For the study, the researchers analyzed blood samples of 73 recently infected patients. Among the group, 52 already had AIDS, while the remaining 21 were HIV-positive but the virus had not yet progressed. The researchers compared their findings to blood samples of 22 AIDS patients who had more common strains of the virus. 
 
 The researchers found that patients with CRF19 had higher levels of the virus in their blood compared with those who had more common strains. 
 
 They also had higher levels of the immune response molecules known as RANTES, which bond to CCR5 proteins in early stages of the virus. The abnormally high level of RANTES in patients infected with the new strain indicates that the virus runs out of CCR5 anchor points much earlier and moves directly to CXCR4 anchor points. 
 
 Thanks to advances in medical treatment and the development of highly effective antiretroviral drugs, HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. But the researchers caution that patients with the new strain of the virus are more likely to be diagnosed when they already have AIDS and when damage from the disease has taken a toll. 
 
 The researchers suspect that this aggressive form of HIV occurs when fragments of other subsets of the virus cling to each other through an enzyme that makes the virus more powerful and easily replicated in the body. 
 
 There are currently 35 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization. Scientists have identified more than 60 different strains of the HIV 1 virus, with each type typically found predominantly in a specific region of the world. 

 In a new study published in the journal EBioMedicine, researchers with Belgium's University of Leuvan report the discovery of a new strain of HIV which may prove to be far more lethal to patients in the West. Originally found in patients in Cuba, the new strain poses particular threats to those infected with HIV as it can develop into AIDS within three years of infection. Though efforts have significantly lowered the infection rates of HIV, as well as prolonged lives with the help of antiretroviral drugs, researchers fear that the fast-moving virus may advance too quickly to treat. 
 
 
 
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 While there are many variations in the form of the autoimmune infection, typical HIV infection in the absence of treatment takes on average 5 to 10 years before entering the lethal stages of AIDS. And with antiretroviral pharmaceuticals, treatments in collaboration with powerful cocktails aimed at changing the immunological response can extend that period for significantly longer. However, the new strain discovered by Cuban health officials has raised great concern as the viral infection is far more aggressive, developing into AIDS within three years of infection. 
 
 
 
 With such a small window in the infection's manageable HIV stage, researchers believe that the new aggressive form of HIV may progress so quickly that the aid of many antiretroviral drugs may come too late. 
 
 
 
 "So this group of patients that progressed very fast, they were all recently infected" lead author of the study, Anne-Mieke Vandamme says. " And we know that because they had been HIV negative tested one, or a maximum of two years before." 
 
 
 
 The study took blood from 73 recently infected patients, none of whom had received treatment for the virus. And within three years of infection all of the patients infected with the mutated strain developed AIDS. Knowing that fast progression is usually attributed to multiple variants, often with a patient's weak immune system being the main culprit, the researchers began to investigate the health of the patients and the attributes of their HIV strains. What the researchers found was far more concerning. 
 
 
 
 "Here we had a variant of HIV that we found only in the group that was progressing fast; not in the other two groups" Vandamme says. "We focused in on this variant and tried to find out what was different, and we saw it was a recombinant of three different subtypes." 
 
 
 
 The new variant named "CRF19" reveals a combination of HIV subtypes A, D and G, and is far faster-acting than strains within the general populous. Though researchers believe that it is not the first time that this strain of the virus has been seen. 
 
 
 
 The variant has also been observed in Africa, though in too small of numbers to be fully researched. However, the strain is far more widespread in Cuba, providing researchers with a lot opportunities to track the infection, and find out how the new combination behaves. 
 
 
 
 While many may fear that the new strain is too lethal to combat, researchers say that the aggressive form of HIV responds to most modern antiretrovirals, though more important is early detection of the infection. If patients are able to be tested early for HIV infection, treatments may be able to delay the onset of AIDS far longer than what they are seeing now. And the researchers are urging people who have unprotected sex with multiple partners to be tested for HIV early and often-it may save their lives. 
 
 
 
 
 

– A fierce new strain of HIV in Cuba is highlighting an old danger—of sleeping around without using any protection, CBS News reports. Researchers say the new HIV is a combination of strains (possibly from multiple sex partners) that more quickly invades cells and turns into full-blown AIDS. A study in Cuba looked at blood samples of 73 people recently infected with the "CRF19" strain, 52 of whom had AIDS, and compared them to 22 blood samples with AIDS from more ordinary HIV strains. The result: CRF19 patients had "abnormally high doses" of HIV, Eureka Alert reports. They also got AIDS only three years after infection, compared to the usual 10. In fact, CRF19 infects so quickly that patients may not realize they're sick until it's too late for antiretroviral therapy to help, Science Times reports. This strain is more dangerous because it's better at grabbing onto human cells and eventually entering them. Typical HIV holds onto cells at one anchor point and advances to another as the virus progresses, giving the patient a few healthy years. But CRF19 moves faster, possibly because fragments combined from HIV subsets hold onto each other through an enzyme that helps the virus replicate. HIV's mutating ability is nothing new, but this one's a doozy—and may hold particular significance for Miami because "Cuba is local for Miami," a physician tells the Miami Herald. He's also troubled by the study's small sample size and the researchers' decision to not treat the patients. "It's unethical to wait until someone progresses" toward AIDS, when "they can no longer benefit from treatment," he says. (See how Craigslist personal ads are causing reported HIV cases to spike.)