AIDS Report Brings Alarm, Not Surprise

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AIDS Report Brings Alarm, Not Surprise

 

 

 

 

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Chilled by Findings, Investigators Dreaded the Mounting Evidence

(February 12, 2005)

 

RISKS: Rare Strain of H.I.V. Raises Fear of a Resurgence in AIDS

Cases

(February 12, 2005)

 

 

 

Rare and Aggressive H.I.V. Reported in New York

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AIDS Report Brings Alarm, Not Surprise

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA and MARC SANTORA

 

Published: February 13, 2005

 

s word spread yesterday of a rare and potentially more aggressive form

of H.I.V., first reported publicly in New York on Friday, communities

already hit hard by the disease, professionals who combat it, and people

who are infected reacted with fear and skepticism. But few were

surprised, given that the sense of urgency about the disease has waned.

 

Michael Justiniano, 37, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, said he

watched his father die of AIDS in 1993. " I have spoken to young kids,

sometimes here, who say, 'If I get it, it's no big deal, I can just take

a pill,' " he said. " I'm like, 'Are you stupid?' It is so disgusting, I

find it really disturbing. "

 

City health officials announced on Friday that they had detected the

rare strain of H.I.V. in one man whose case they described as

particularly worrisome because it merged two unusual features:

resistance to nearly all anti-retroviral drugs used to treat the

infection, and stunningly swift progression from infection to

full-fledged AIDS.

 

That combination, the officials said, could signal a new, more menacing

kind of infection, and its discovery set in motion an anxious search by

city workers to find the man's sexual partners and have them tested.

 

The infected man, gay and in his 40's, tested negative for H.I.V. in

2003, then tested positive last December, health officials said.

Investigators believe he may have contracted the virus in October when

he engaged in unprotected anal sex with multiple partners while using

crystal methamphetamine. By last month, it was clear that three of the

four classes of anti-retroviral drugs used against H.I.V. were not

working in this case, and the man showed signs of AIDS, including rapid

weight loss, a high level of the virus in his bloodstream, and a

depleted supply of crucial immune system cells.

 

Even though the anti-retroviral " cocktail " has extended many lives, some

infected people still deteriorate and end up with AIDS, but that process

usually takes many years. Doctors say that for a patient to reach that

stage in a matter of months is extremely troubling.

 

AIDS experts and public health officials have long maintained that since

the development of anti-retroviral drugs in the 1990's, people have

developed a false sense that A.I.D.S. no longer poses a significant

threat, leading to a rise in unprotected sex. Clear evidence of the

trend has been seen in the growing number of cases of sexually

transmitted diseases like syphilis, chlamydia, and lymphogranuloma.

 

In 2003, a survey by New York City's Department of Health and Mental

Hygiene found that more than half of city residents with multiple,

recent sexual partners had not been tested for H.I.V. in the previous 18

months, and 40 percent said that they had not used condoms the last time

they had sex. At the time, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city health

commissioner, attributed the results to " H.I.V. precaution burnout. "

 

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday described the failure to take

precautions against H.I.V. in harsh terms. " It's just a sin in our

society, where we know how it's transmitted from one person to another,

and we should be able to get people to conduct themselves such that they

don't catch it themselves, and certainly that they don't infect anybody

else, " he said.

 

Unsafe sex practices combined with growing drug resistance among people

with H.I.V., has had officials warning for years about a possible

resurgence of A.I.D.S., a fear voiced yesterday by many people across

the country as they struggled to make sense of the news out of New York.

 

Oliver Palan, 19, a gay student at Baruch College, says that he has

slept with 10 men recently, none of whom wanted to use a condom. " So

many people are like, 'It is so much more fun without the condom,' so

they prefer to take the risk, " he said, noting that he insists on using

condoms. Often, he said, partners will try to dissuade him by saying, " I

trust you, you should trust me. "

 

Edsel Gonzalez, 30, a business owner in South Beach, the Miami Beach

neighborhood filled with nightclubs and restaurants that is popular

among gays, said he was " absolutely worried about this.

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