Rare Drug-Resistant HIV Found in N.Y.

[Guest guest]

This obscure article in today's WP sounds ominous............

Rare Drug-Resistant HIV Found in N.Y.

By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK (AP) -- City health officials are working to track down sex

partners of a man diagnosed with a rare strain of highly drug-resistant HIV

that progressed rapidly to AIDS.

The virus was found in a man in his mid-40s who had unprotected sex

with other men, often while using crystal methamphetamine, an addictive

stimulant, health officials said Friday.

" We are not aware of another case like this in the United States, or

elsewhere, " said Dr. Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB

Prevention.

Health Commissioner Dr. Frieden said the rare HIV strain is

" difficult or impossible to treat. "

The New York Times, citing a person familiar with the case whom it did

not identify, reported Saturday that the man was believed to have had

unprotected sex with hundreds of people.

The man -- who had not previously undergone antiviral drug treatment

-- was diagnosed with the rare strain in December 2004. He apparently had

been infected recently after years of having unprotected anal intercourse.

The city has not released his name, but health officials are trying to

locate his sex partners to offer them testing.

The onset of AIDS appears to have occurred within two to three months,

and at most 20 months, after infection. Frieden said HIV can take 10 years

to develop into AIDS.

Drug resistance is increasingly common among HIV-positive people,

including some who had never been treated before, but not with such a fast

progression to AIDS, Valdiserri said.

The man's HIV did not respond to three of four types of antiviral drugs

most commonly prescribed; he is now receiving a fourth regimen, health

officials said.

Typically, drug resistance occurs after a patient is treated with the

drugs, often because the patient veers from the prescribed course. In this

case, resistance occurred from the start of treatment, and was combined with

a rapid progression to AIDS.

Valdiserri said that " double whammy " of resistance and rapid

progression made the case alarming.

" The message to the American public is that HIV remains a very

formidable adversary. We can't let down our vigilance, " Valdiserri said.

Some AIDS experts were skeptical about the announcement. Dr. C.

Gallo, a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus and director of the Institute of

Human Virology at the University of land, said some patients progress

more rapidly to AIDS because they are highly susceptible, not because their

strain of the virus is more deadly.

" My guess is that this is much ado about nothing, " he told The New York

Times.

But Dr. Braun, president of the Physicians Research Network, a

New York-based not-for-profit organization of clinicians serving HIV

patients, said doctors have been worried for some time about a more

resistant strain of the drug.

" We believe that the transmission of treatment-resistant HIV was a

disaster waiting to happen, particularly in communities where safer sex is

not practiced regularly and in light of people using drugs like crystal

meth, " he said.