Health
Resistant HIV case in N.Y.
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 7, 2005
A highly resistant strain of HIV that proceeds rapidly to AIDS has been diagnosed in a New York City man, the city health department announced Feb. 11.
The diagnosed strain of HIV is resistant to three of the four classes of commonly prescribed anti-retroviral medications. The infected man, who had not been treated previously for HIV, was a methamphetamine user and said he had unprotected anal intercourse with numerous partners, thus raising the possibility that infections could spread beyond this single case.
The infection appeared to be recent, said health department officials. While drug resistance is increasingly common among patients who have been treated for HIV, cases that are resistant to three strains are rare in previously untreated patients.
Although AIDS usually occurs more than 10 years after initial infection with HIV, in the case of the New York City patient, elevation to AIDS probably occurred within two to three months after the initial infection.
"This case is a wake-up call," said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH. "The community successfully reduced its risk of HIV in the 1980s, and it must do so again to stop the devastation of HIV/AIDS and the spread of drug-resistant strains."
The health department issued a health alert to physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals asking them to test all newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients for anti-HIV drug susceptibility.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/03/07/hlbf0307.htm.
