By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
New York Times
AIDS viruses isolated from two people are being studied to determine whether
either might be the source of a rare and potentially more aggressive form of
H.I.V. detected in a New York City man, an AIDS scientist involved in the
studies said yesterday.
Many more tests need to be conducted to determine if the strains from the
three people are the same, said the scientist, Dr. David Ho. He directs the
Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan, which is conducting some of
the studies in collaboration with the New York City health department. While
some findings may be available in a week, others will take longer, Dr. Ho
said in an interview.
Even if the strains prove to be the same, that would not necessarily mean
that a supervirus is on the loose, since there could be genetic factors in
the first man that would make his infection progress faster.
"What we can't prove is that this is a supervirus" and that it caused the
rapid progression from infection to AIDS in the New York City man, Dr. Ho
said.
Laboratory tests in Dr. Ho's laboratory and elsewhere have shown that the
strain from the man whose case started the investigation is resistant to 19
of the 20 licensed anti-retroviral drugs. AIDS experts said that the strain
might have led to the rapid onset of AIDS in the man or that his immune
defenses might have been weakened by drug use or genetics.
Molecular tests of the man's H.I.V. show it has changes that appear to
differ significantly from the typical strains being circulated in New York
City, and precisely what those changes mean remains to be determined, Dr. Ho
said.
Dr. Ho said his laboratory has begun testing a virus that was isolated from
a man who was known to be H.I.V.-infected before he became a sex partner of
the New York City man.
That partner probably had sex with the New York City man in October, a few
weeks before the New York City man became ill with what his doctors believe
was the acute retroviral syndrome. It occurs in the earliest stages of
H.I.V. infection.
The partner is "a potential source for this man's case," Dr. Ho said. "But
he may not be."
The second virus is from an unidentified patient in San Diego who was
apparently infected before the New York City man. It was found by scouring
the records of a commercial laboratory, ViroLogic Inc. of South San
Francisco, and portions of its genetic makeup closely resemble the molecular
pattern of the New York City man's virus, Dr. Ho said.
Dr. Ho's team sent the partner's virus to ViroLogic for testing. Doctors
from around the country send thousands of H.I.V. specimens to the company
for testing.
An additional man who was a sex partner of the New York City man has
declined to participate in the epidemiologic investigation, Dr. Ho said. It
is not known if he is H.I.V.-infected.
The two male contacts in New York City, only one of whom is cooperating with
the investigation, are among hundreds of men with whom the New York City man
told health officials he has had sex in recent weeks while using crystal
methamphetamine. The New York man who sparked the investigation is
cooperating with city health officials but apparently does not know the
names of all his partners.
The health department is trying to trace as many of his sex contacts as can
be ascertained. To protect his privacy, health officials have identified him
only as in his mid-40's.
So far, city health workers have reached "about a dozen" of the man's
contacts, said Sandra Mullin, director of communications for the health
department. She said she did not know how many contacts have agreed to
donate specimens for testing and, if so, what the findings were.
Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal
agency in Atlanta, said that they have notified health departments
elsewhere. While the agency is aiding in the investigation, the city is
taking the lead, said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, the director of H.I.V./AIDS
prevention at the agency.
On Friday, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the commissioner of the New York City
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said the man's case was the first
in which a strain of H.I.V. had been found that showed both resistance to
multiple classes of drugs and apparently led to a rapid progression from
infection to AIDS. Each component has been reported earlier.
Dr. Frieden and other AIDS experts said they considered it prudent to
investigate what they knew was only one case and to issue an alert to
doctors and hospitals to seek other cases.
Dr. Frieden was joined by other AIDS experts at a news conference that he
said was intended to issue a wake-up call to the public and health
professionals about the seriousness of unsafe sex and the apparent increase
in drug-resistant H.I.V. strains.
While the experts said that they could not rule out the possibility that
they were dealing with an extraordinary confluence of two rare events, they
also said they were concerned about the possibility of the man passing it to
his hundreds of sexual contacts.
"You need a mechanism to do that, and this is what the city is doing in
tracing contacts," Dr. Ho said.
The health department asked doctors and hospitals for their help because the
city, like most other areas of the country, has no system to monitor the
occurrence of H.I.V. drug resistance among recently infected people.
So, Dr. Frieden said, the city has no easy way to determine whether such a
strain was an isolated event or whether it was infecting a cluster of
people, small or large.
Dr. Frieden and other experts said that logically there had to be at least
one other individual with the rare strain who gave it to the New York City
man.
Some scientists criticized the health department for causing unnecessary
alarm by disclosing information about just one case, and for calling a news
conference when it had to say the scientific premise for its announcement
was weak.
Dr. Frieden defended his department's decision to issue a warning on Friday.
"Everyone who hears this, their first thought is either it can't be true or,
if it is, it can't be that significant," Dr. Frieden said in an interview.
"But the more you hear about it, the more concerned you become."
He said that the decision to go public was not easy and was not taken
lightly, but that, given the evidence he had available, he had no doubt they
did the right thing.
As he cautioned on Friday, several things remain unknown. They do not know
how widespread this strain is or how widespread it will become. They also do
not know how this patient will fare.
But they do know several troubling things beyond a doubt, he said.
"There is not a question that drug resistance is on the increase," he said.
In addition, he said, there is no good system in place to track patient
adherence to drug treatment. That, paired with the fact that there is far
too much risky sex taking place in which methamphetamine use plays a role,
is enough to give anyone pause.
"One of our really core values is that we take a great deal of care and
pride in what we say," Dr. Frieden said. "We don't go out and say things
unless we have reasonable certainty that what we say is correct."
He said that anyone who suggests that the department issued the warning
simply to scare the public into behaving more responsibly was absolutely
wrong.
Dr. Ho acknowledged that it was extraordinary for the health department to
issue an alert before the full scientific information was available or made
public. But Dr. Ho said he and other scientists were doing the very tests
that critics said had not been performed.
"A lot of people are asking for data that we either have not disclosed or we
are working on," Dr. Ho said. "It could be that the man is genetically prone
to have a rapid progression," Dr. Ho said.
Re: New Highly Virulent Strain of HIV Found
No new "strain" has been detected. Just ONE person who did not respond
in the usual way to antiretroviral drugs...and if one's immune system is
destroyed through drug abuse, the anti HIV drugs, which are hard on the
body by themselves, certainly are not going to help a patient in this
situation. No credible news report would use the term "crystal
methamphetamine" and would certainly not describe it as a "narcotic."
It does NOT put people to sleep!
1. All of their counts for New York are estimated.
2. The "patient" they found was a routine abuser of crystal
methamphetamine, Which we all know will seriously destroy your immune
system.
Pay close attention when you read and see if you can see a national
newspaper "of record" pulling some yellow journalism
Know Peter Duesberg? He doesn't believe HIV causes AIDS.
"He has instead proposed the hypothesis that the various
American/European AIDS diseases are brought on by the long-term
consumption of recreational drugs and/or AZT itself, which is prescribed
to prevent or treat AIDS. See The AIDS Dilemma: Drug diseases blamed on a
passenger virus."
http://www.duesberg.com/
http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html
And here's a new bloomberg article about a "New, Virulent HIV Strain".
Guess what - The guy is a heavy crystal meth user - and was treated with
several anti retrovirus drugs. Suddenly he's sick!
Can't imagine why. And they label it AIDS. Another highlight from the
article - '"the patient's use of crystal methamphetamine shows that the
drug continues to play a significant role in facilitating the transmission
of HIV.'' The drug reduces peoples' inhibitions and their likelihood of
using condoms or other forms of safe sex, he said.'
Right. So they admit the corrolation between meth and AIDS. But it's only
because a person is less likely to use a condom, get HIV, then AIDS.
hmmmm. Fishy. What do you think?
The NY Times even states in the first paragraph that "many scientists are
skeptical". I wonder why?
The article ends with information about drug companies' stock.. Glaxco
stock jumped up so much that it caused a boom on ALL Europen Exchanges.
The power of myths.
Yep, I agree. HIV/AIDS is about money, not truth or health.
