Here's some bad news on the battle forefront with HIV. A new and more aggressive strain has been discovered in West Africa. It causes significantly faster progression to AIDS.

The new strain is called A3/02 and is a fusion of the two most common HIV strains in Guinea-Bissau.

"Individuals who are infected with the new recombinant form develop AIDS within five years, and that's about two to two-and-a-half years faster than one of the parent (strains)," said Angelica Palm, one of the scientists responsible for the study based on a long-term follow-up of HIV-positive people in Guinea-Bissau.

But wait, there's some good news (at least). According to researchers, the speed with which A3/02 leads to people falling ill from AIDS does not impact on the effectiveness of medication on infected individuals.

The recombinants may be spreading fast, especially with high levels of immigration. It looks like we'll have to step up the fight against HIV now.