Posted on 02/11/2005 6:07:56 PM PST by neverdem
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:06 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's first diagnosed case of highly drug-resistant HIV in a person never before treated for the virus is ``a wake up call'' to anyone who has unprotected sex, the city's health commissioner said Friday.
The patient, a man in his mid-40s who had unprotected sex with other men, contracted a strain of HIV that is ``difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS,'' said the Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden.
The diagnosis ``is a wake up call to men who have sex with men,'' Frieden said at a news conference.
The commissioner said the city's health authorities are working with the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to find other possible cases of the drug-resistant HIV strain that quickly turns into AIDS.
``We are not aware of another case like this in the United States, or elsewhere,'' said Dr. Ron Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention.
New York health officials are now trying to locate the man's sex partners to offer them testing. The city has not released his name.
The man was first diagnosed in December 2004 at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center on Manhattan's East Side. He apparently had been infected recently after years of what Frieden said was the riskiest sexual behavior -- unprotected anal intercourse. The man developed AIDS as early as two or three months after diagnosis.
``To go from infection to disease in months is very unusual,'' said Frieden, noting that HIV can take as many as 10 years to develop into AIDS.
Another factor that may have contributed to the careless sexual behavior was his use of crystal methamphetamine -- or ``crystal meth,'' Frieden said. ``It's a drug that reduces inhibitions and protective impulses.''
The patient's three-class antiretroviral-resistant HIV did not respond to three of four classes of anti-retroviral medication most commonly prescribed. He is now receiving a fourth ``cocktail'' in hopes his rare HIV strain will respond, health officials said.
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.
What makes this case important to scientists is ``the double whammy of resistance to three classes of drugs, in combination with the rapid clinical course of the HIV to AIDS,'' Valdiserri said. ``The message to the American public is that HIV remains a very formidable adversary. We can't let down our vigilance.''
Dr. James Braun, president of the Physicians Research Network, a New York-based not-for-profit organization of clinicians serving HIV patients, said the New York case comes as no surprise: ``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.''
More than 88,000 New Yorkers are known to be living with HIV/AIDS, and an estimated 20,000 more are believed to be infected and don't know it, according to the city's health department.
Frieden said the gay community successfully reduced its risk of AIDS after the first big epidemic in the 1980s. ``And it must do so again to stop the spread of drug-resistant strains.''
On the Net:
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: http://www.nyc.gov/health
It's not going to be rare for long. Not with the week-kneed liberal feel-good diversity BS that runs rampant through our society.
Now, why did this dude have unprotected sex with multiple partners?
> NYC DHMH: The diagnosis ``is a wake up call ...
No, the wake-up call was 20 years ago when HIV first
appeared, and its transmission was identified.
Anyone still snoozing about HIV has a clear death-wish.
Smelling the coffee isn't going to get their attention.
"More than 88,000 New Yorkers are known to be living with HIV/AIDS, and an estimated 20,000 more are believed to be infected and don't know it,"
New York New York, what a wonderful town.
Sounds to me like the problem will sort itself out.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Thanks for the link.
if ya play,and your gay,be prepared to pay.
You reap what you sow!!
Yep. Just another lifestyle...
What do you call mutations that confer resistance to drugs in formerly sensitive organisms?
More $$$$$$$ We need More $$$$$ for AIDS research
AIDs is the best thing ever happened to the drug companies
I'm sorry but the threat to public safety outweighs this individual's right to privacy. The spread of AIDS would drastically be curtailed if infected people had their names and faces publicized. The gay lobby will never allow this to happen though.
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