HIV Mutating (Super Strain Spreading)

The Independent UK ^ | 11-06-01 | Steve Conner

[Neuromancer]

New strain of HIV is resistant to main drug
By Steve Connor Science Editor
06 November 2001

A new type of Aids virus can quickly turn resistant to one of the most effective drugs used to treat the disease. Scientists discovered the new strain among 603 HIV-positive patients who were so recently infected they had not yet even been given drugs. Their findings suggest the much-feared increase in drug-resistant forms of HIV is beginning to take root with a strain that has an in-built capacity to resist treatment with AZT, the principal anti-Aids treatment.

Although drug-resistant strains of HIV were discovered in 1992 they were almost invariably found in patients having treatment with one or more anti-viral drugs. While drug resistance has been seen in HIV-infected patients before, it has seldom been seen in untreated patients.

The latest strain was evidently transmitted among people who have never been exposed to AZT, suggesting that drug resistance is spreading rapidly within HIV-positive people who may not even know they are infected.

The latest study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found several genetic mutations in the new strain of HIV made the virus perfectly poised for further mutations that conferred full AZT-resistance. Dr Garcia-Lerma said doctors would test patients for this new strain and report its prevalence so the general rise in drug-resistance could be monitored.

If such strains become widespread, that will be a severe setback in Aids treatment.

[Clinton's a rapist]

To say something is "immuno-compromising" is quite a leap from saying it leads to infection. Are colds and flus immuno-compromising? This kind of intellectual sloppiness is commonplace in discussions of AIDS. And, in fact, it is a big question how much we really know about environmental/lifestyle impacts on the immune system and especially CD4/CD8 ratios. What happens to CD4 and CD8 counts during colds and flu? What is the effect on CD4/CD8 ratios of all-night partying, psychological stress, heavy drinking, poppers, coke, speed, crystal, heroin, Factor VIII, anabolic steroids, long-term prophylactic use of antibiotics, malnutrition, aging, DNA chain terminators like AZT, protease inhibitors, repeated exposure to a multiplicity of pathogens and foreign proteins due to promiscuous sex or poor sanitation, etc.? How reliable are CD4/CD8 assays in clinical practice? What is the statistical distribution of measured CD4/CD8 ratios cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and how does the variability correlate with the environmental and lifestyle factors just mentioned? Since the construction of AIDS as a unitary disease and not a grab-bag of separate diseases depends rather critically on the assumption that CD4/CD8 ratios tell us a lot, one would hope that these questions have been thoroughly investigated and that any confounding issues they raise have been resolved. One would hope that is the case, but whether one would be justified in that hope, I'm not so sure.

[ChaseR]

lol for your post #17....(eewwwwwww)

[FormerLib]

To say something is "immuno-compromising" is quite a leap from saying it leads to infection.

Good point. Obviously, I was thinking of the infectious aspects of the perversion. That is different from "immuno-compromising."

[Brian Allen]

Cute?

Nah.

To The Contrarian posted on 11/5/01 6:28 PM Pacific by The Contrarian

Come now, the only way to be completely and 100% safe from AIDS is to have NO sex, to let NO foreign liquids into your blood, to not even KISS anybody. In other words, there is no way t be 100% safe from AIDS. You've met a girl. Are you going to demand an AIDS test before you make out with her? Before you have sex, with a condom? Or, you're down in Honduras, multiple lacerations from a helicopter accident... are you going to deny a blood transfusion because there are rats in the corner of the operating room, when you know you're going to die if you don't get it? Are you going to demand an AIDS test then? What if AIDS shifts to an airborne strain? Who thinks God will save them from it then? He didn't save people from the Black Plague. He didn't save them from Typhus or Cholera. God didn't save anyone from the Spanish flu either--another nice diseases that got famous by killing a whole lot of people, straight, gay, bisexual, whatever... But, suddenly, AIDS pops on the scene, and it's the growl of an angry God? No. AIDS is just another nasty disease out there causing misery for a whole lot of people, a lot of people who tomorrow could include your mother or my father, your sister or my brother, your lover or mine, you or me .....

.... is "cute."

Seeing a psychiatrist for it -- and for whatever else ails you -- is sage and sound advice!

[Brian Allen]

..... Oooh... I'm hurtin', I'm hurtin' .....

That's what I said in post # 146. [That's the one before #147]

Five days ago! <];^)~<

[realpatriot71]

HIV does NOT, I repeat NOT, cause AIDs

You sir, obviously have no understanding of viruses, immunology, or immune deficiency disorders.

[realpatriot71]

The HIV virus has not been demonstrated to cause anything

Another one . . . interesting propaganda . . .

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"falsely thinking that an AIDS cocktail will save you"

No cocktail will save anyone from cock-in-tail! ;-)