Rare, aggressive strain of HIV reported
The Times is reporting a possibly resistant, aggressive strain of HIV in NYC:
A rare strain of H.I.V. that is highly resistant to virtually all
anti-retroviral drugs and appears to lead to the rapid onset of AIDS
was detected in a New York City man last week, city health officials
announced on Friday.It was the first time a strain of H.I.V. had
been found that both showed resistance to multiple drugs and led to
AIDS so quickly, the officials said. While the extent of the disease’s
spread is unknown, officials called a news conference to say that the
situation is alarming….While H.I.V. strains that are resistant to some anti-retroviral
drugs have been on the rise in recent years, both in New York City and
nationally, city and federal officials said that the new case was
worrisome for several reasons.The viral strain in the unnamed
patient was resistant to three of the four classes of drugs used to
treat H.I.V. from the start of treatment. Typically, drug resistance
occurs after a patient is treated with retroviral drugs, often because
the patient veers from the prescribed course. And more often than not,
a person is resistant to only one or two classes of drugs.But
in this case, the drug resistance is combined with a rapid
transformation into AIDS. Both of those phenomena have been seen
before, but are not believed to have occurred together.
Filed under: Epidemiology