A more transmissible mutant strain of HIV that makes people ill twice as fast has been detected in the Netherlands.

The VB variant has infected at least 109 people, according to a study carried out by the University of Oxford.

It has just been discovered now, but it is thought the strain has been quietly circulating in the Netherlands for the past few decades.

HIV gradually weakens the immune system – lowering people’s ability to fight infections and diseases.

As the VB variant is stronger, those who catch it are at risk of developing AIDS more quickly.

It also has a viral load between 3.5 and 5.5 times higher than the previous strain, meaning infected people are more likely to pass the virus on to others.

However HIV medicines work just as well in people carrying the VB variant as anyone else, and its spread has been declining since about 2010.

It was discovered as part of efforts to better understand how the virus continues to evolve.

Oxford University epidemiologist Christophe Fraser, the study’s senior author, said the finding stresses the importance of good access to testing and treatment so ‘HIV is surpressed as quickly as possible’.

Different HIV subtypes circulate in different countries, some more severe or transmissible than others. subtype B is the most common in the U.S. and Western Europe.

The Oxford team spotted 17 unusual cases while studying a database of European HIV patients – people who had more immune damage and were more infectious when they were diagnosed than is typical for subtype B.

Since all but two of those cases were from the Netherlands, the researchers next combed through thousands of Dutch records.

They eventually identified a cluster of 109 people infected with what they’re calling the VB variant, for virulent subtype B.

The cases date back to the 1990s and early 2000s, and have declined more recently, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.

Before treatment, people with the VB variant had far more virus in their blood and suffered more immune system damage than people with other HIV variants, the study found.

It’s not clear which of many viral genetic changes are the cause, but after treatment they fared the same as other HIV patients.

In an accompanying editorial, viral evolution expert at the University of California, Joel Wertheim, said finding this variant ‘is not a public health crisis’.

The scientist, who did not take part in the Oxford study, said in an interview that it ‘does not appear to have led to a spike’ in HIV cases.

But the finding highlights how much is left to learn about why a long-spreading virus ‘still has the potential to evolve and adapt. As this current pandemic continues to remind us, we shouldn’t underestimate the potential for viral adaptation’.

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