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.

[Neuromancer]

Good point - not to mention - challenging this retrovirus with exotic drugs enhances mutations.

[LibertarianLiz]

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.

So, HIV is becoming like a BORG-virus; adjusting to whatever you are trying to use to kill it.

[LibertarianLiz]

What a great time it is to practice monogamy.

The AIDs phenomenon began shortly after my hubby and I were married. I remember after one news report, my husband just shook his head and said, "Boy, am I glad I'm married."

[rwfromkansas]

I mean, you get AIDS by choice. To the married couples who get it, I feel for them. But, not anybody else.

[Neuromancer]

Yes..It is a very smart and 100% deadly virus

[Stefan Stackhouse]

This is nothing that an immediate and effectively administered quarantine of the infected can't solve.

How many hundreds of thousands of prematurely dead people would be alive today if we had the guts and good sense to do the one thing that really needed to be done back when the numbers of infected were few?

[dubyagee]

The HIV virus has not been demonstrated to cause anything. Even the HIV tests only indicate the presence of antibodies which coorelate to numerous conditions unrelated to the presence of HIV (i.e. there's not even a test in existence that reliably indicates the presence of the virus, which has not been shown to be the cause of anything, anyway.)

I think you two are saying basically the same thing, only I can't figure out what that "thing" is. Are you saying HIV positives won't necessarily develop AIDS? Are you saying that monogamy won't prevent others from getting AIDS? In layman's terms, please explain exactly what you ARE saying?

[Black Agnes]

All virii or bacteria adjust to whatever you give them. Resistance is known among many strains of virii and bacteria. When you treat an organism with something lethal, there will inevitably be a few that survive your little chemical warfare due to particular mutations in their genomic codes. These survivors then reproduce in a newly clean environment. Joy! Bliss! Resistant Infection! /sarcasm

[Neuromancer]

ANN ARBOR, MI - Absence of a genetic mutation that protects people from HIV infection could be a major factor responsible for the current AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new model developed by University of Michigan scientists. "The critical mutation is in the gene for a receptor molecule called CCR5, which the HIV virus uses to infect immune cells in its human host," says Denise Kirschner, Ph.D., an associate professor of microbiology and immunology in the U-M Medical School.

"People with two copies or alleles of this mutation are almost completely protected against HIV," explains Kirschner. "Those with one mutated and one normal copy can be infected, but they carry lower levels of the virus and take two years longer, on average, to develop AIDS. People with two normal copies of the CCR5 gene are most susceptible to HIV infection."

Previous studies by other scientists found that the CCR5 mutation is much more common in people of European descent than in African or Asian populations. So Kirschner and her colleagues developed a mathematical model to test their hypothesis that the prevalence of CCR5 mutations can limit the spread of AIDS in an entire population. Results of the model were published in the August 21 on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[The Real Deal]

Intraveneous drug users and the gay community better wise up. Stop engaging in self-destructive behavior, falsely thinking that an AIDS cocktail will save you.

At the rate Aids is going, it won't be long before most intraveneous durg users and most of the gay community are dead. Most of them will not change their ways. What a shame, but they do have a choice.

[jude24]

You're full of it...

you can't be a real doc and not know how the HIV virus works. Heck, I'm a PRE-med, and I can tell ya that you're completely wrong.

HIV attacks a certain type of lymphatic cell (T-cells, if I remember correctly). Once the lymphatic cells are killed, that's AIDS. Those 40 diseases your referenced? Those are opportunistic infections that take advantage of a weakened immune response.

[winodog]

We should take a few lessons from Fidel.

[Neuromancer]

Alas what you say is true..

Had this epidemic not been political we would have been allowed to do normal contact tracing and mass screening.

Too late, I'm sorry to say

[Talkwire]

Go Doc, huzzah! for helping dispell the HIV/AIDS myth. HIV does not cause AIDS This is not Tin-foil hat stuff, it is real science, rather than the pseudoscience the pharmagaysocialmedical establishment is pushing. For more info Dr. Peter Duesberg's web site is here.

[drstevej]

The cure for aids?

Knowing the difference between an entrance and an exit.

[Abcdefg]

Hate to be a party pooper folks,

Or a pooper partier! ;^)

[Paul Atreides]

Mark my words, this will somehow be W's fault. We will soon be hearing cries of stopping the war to use the money for AIDS drugs.

[Hammerhead]

Sounds like the homo's are f'd. Oh, wait a minute.......

[Dacus943]

"This is nothing that an immediate and effectively administered quarantine of the infected can't solve."

100% Quarantine of all those AT RISK of spreading this disease. HIV (AIDS) should be eradicated in One Generation!