Alarming Surge in Drug-Resistant HIV Uncovered

Scientific America ^ | July 30, 2019 | Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

[C19fan]

Health authorities have uncovered an alarming surge in resistance to crucial HIV drugs.

Surveys by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that, in the past 4 years, 12 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas have surpassed acceptable levels of drug resistance against two drugs that constitute the backbone of HIV treatment: efavirenz and nevirapine.

People living with HIV are routinely treated with a cocktail of drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, but the virus can mutate into a resistant form.

[bgill]

Nothing good has ever come out of Africa.

[Professional]

Gotta love socialism...we’ll be paying for ever sick Fokker’s lifestyle until we’re bankrupt and a 3rd world nation.

[Getready]

Hiv mutates so fast...if one cultures it in growth medium the original
genome is not what you end up with. Thats why you need 2 or 3 meds which act on different pathways to
Suppress it. Rare for all 3 resistant mutations to show up at once.
What is interesting is that hiv still remains a retrovirus.

[Getready]

Poster forgot kidney failure.

[Grimmy]

This falls square solid in the Duh category of events.

Anyone who didn’t see this coming simply wasn’t paying attention.

[HombreSecreto]

Tainted blood is almost a memory.

---

Until a liberal judge orders blood banks to accept donations from high-risk donors.

[SauronOfMordor]

Promiscuous anal sex is a very effective way of spreading diseases quickly. If it wasn’t drug resistant HIV, it would have been something else.

[Richard Kimball]

I worked in emergency response in the gayest part of a pretty gay city back in the 80s, during the first round. It was crazy how many people were dying. One I remember was a guy, about six four. On the dresser was his high school picture. He looked like a linebacker in that photo. He was skin and bones and had kaposi sarcoma so bad he looked like a dalmatian.

[Viking2002]

The transference of some STDs is, by and large, the result of socio-cultural behavior among certain groups. But it lays bare a larger issue that isn't given a lot of sunlight: diseases we eradicated decades ago - or longer - are being reintroduced to this hemisphere, or ones not native to us are being brought here from abroad. You now have new cases of TB, Ebola, avian flu, and the like popping up in North America due to illegal immigration and modern mass transportation; sooner or later, one's going to gain a foothold and cause a pandemic. Pathogens don't discriminate. Wait until poor little 'refugees' Miguel and Maria from Honduras walk across the border unchecked and unannounced, then one of them spreads a disease with a 50%+ mortality rate that causes Los Angeles to be quarantined. See how fast attitudes change. They have a built-in immunity to diseases in their environment. We don't. Case in point: North American and European tourists are advised to use bottled water or boil the native tap water in places like Mexico and China before they consume it. We're not used to their gut bugs, and what might give them a mild case of gas, will cause writhing pain and explosive diarrhea in the rest of us. Hotels in China actually have specially filtered secondary plumbing systems for use by Westerners due to it. Water taps sticking right out of the wall.

If it comes down to the health and well-being of me and my family, or a feeling a warm fuzzy for escorting some trans-hemispheric interloper into a cushy new life, poor little Miguel and Maria are up Shit Creek.

[gov_bean_ counter]

When BFF has nothing to do with friends...

[Amberdawn]

Yes, they talk as if AIDS was a roommate instead of a lethal disease.

[know.your.why]

This Soph kid is out of control! I like her!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bplfghJMs

[Amberdawn]

According to a study by WHO in 18 countries, some 10% of those being treated for HIV/AIDS are resistant to two of the main drugs used to treat the disease. Apparently, 10% is a threshold that bodes ill for current treatment options.

[Kickass Conservative]

Life evolves. Is this a shocker?

[Amberdawn]

I agree! Too many people, many I suspect are Libertarians, say nothing about the costs associated with treating AIDS, when they rail endlessly about other government costs.

[Amberdawn]

Looks and sounds like a boy to me, but whatever, the message is great.

[dfwgator]

“Come on ev’rybody we’ve got quilting to do...”

[Secret Agent Man]

And cancer, sarcomas.

[ifinnegan]

“According to a study by WHO in 18 countries, some 10% of those being treated for HIV/AIDS are resistant to two of the main drugs used to treat the disease. Apparently, 10% is a threshold that bodes ill for current treatment options.”

Thanks.

I’m asking what are the data that lead to that conclusion.

e.g. viral load no longer being suppressed or a molecular determination of viral mutation etc...

[know.your.why]

>>If it comes down to the health and well-being of me and my family, or a feeling a warm fuzzy for escorting some trans-hemispheric interloper into a cushy new life, poor little Miguel and Maria are up Shit Creek.

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Can I hear an A-Men brother!