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A recent health discovery is threatening to dethrone the H1N1 virus as the predominant talk of all doctors and health workers. A fourth strain of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, is being revealed to the world after being kept a secret for nearly four years. Sharing some common traits with its predecessors, the new virus presents an immediate escalation in the world’s struggle to conquer the seemingly insurmountable sickness. Parisian researchers, doctors, and pathologists are at the forefront of this new war for the right to live, and though daunting, they feel the new health scare will provide more information into what drives the disease and as well as what could possibly lead to a cure.

Found within a 62-year old resident of Paris, the HIV’s new strain is more wily than any of its predecessors. Like the three known versions, it is related to the same illnesses that can be found within the simian family. The similarities with its familiar relatives end as this version of the virus is more deceptive than anything before it. Researchers theorize that the new strain originated through gorilla to human contact, though some believe that it could have started in chimpanzees and jumped through the simian family until reaching humanity. The woman maintains that she had no contact with apes or with meat from wild animals in her former homeland.

With no clear point of origin, matters found themselves worsened much more in the observance stage of the virus. As seen in the patient, this new viral destroyer appears to have none of the signs traditionally associated with HIV, leaving researchers with more questions than answers on the invisible killer. It also replicates much more rapidly than any other strain, which suggests that is has developed an adaption to human cells. Those two facts combine to make an issue with an already ghost-like “appearance” even harder to spot, with researchers unable to determine whether the new strain has already made a widespread impact or if this is just a single case.

The same study also found that areas where herpes sores existed still increased the risk of HIV contraction long after they have healed, with drug treatment to heal sores found to be ineffective in ultimately lowering the risk of contraction as well.