Full details of the case of a gay man in New York who contracted a multi-drug resistant strain of HIV and progressed to AIDS rapidly are published today in the medical journal The Lancet. The information provided is identical to that presented last month at the Twelfth Annual Retrovirus Conference in Boston, reported here on aidsmap.com.
In an accompanying editorial The Lancet comments: "This case serves as a reminder that HIV remains a frighteningly versatile foe, one that can mutate to escape immune attack or to acquire drug resistance with surprising speed. One lesson to be drawn from this case, therefore, is that despite all the advances that have been made in understanding this virus and all the progress that has been made in developing new drugs, prevention remains the most effective strategy to combat HIV, especially prevention efforts that target high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men, intravenous drug users, and sex workers and their clients."
The Lancet. HIV/AIDS: doing what’s right. Lancet 365: 1003, 2005.
Markowitz M et al. Infection with multidrug resistant, dual-tropic HIV-1 and rapid progression to AIDS: a case report. Lancet 365: 1031 – 1038, 2005.