Yet Another Highly Resistant Virus?

A hard-to-treat strain of HIV has been found in at least four gay men in King County, Wash., and authorities fear it could spread. While there is no evidence that the strain is spreading rapidly, its appearance underscores the need for renewed emphasis on safer-sex practices, according to officials in the Seattle'King County public-health department. Bob Wood, the agency's HIV program director, says, 'There may be more cases we don't know about.' The same genetic strain of HIV was found over a 15-month period in all four men'methamphetamine users who each had multiple partners'but none is known to have had sex with any of the other three. 'That's highly unusual,' says Peter Shalit, who treats AIDS patients and directs HIV research at Seattle's Swedish Medical Center. One possibility is that there is a new strain of multidrug-resistant HIV that is spread more easily than previous drug-resistant strains, 'definitely a scary prospect,' Shalit adds. Nationally, it is believed that 2% to 3% of the HIV strains that people are infected with could have resistance to two to three classes of anti-HIV meds.