Drug-Resistant, Fast-Progressing Strain of HIV Discovered

Doctors have discovered a man with a previously unseen strain of HIV that is resistant to three of the four types of antiviral drugs that combat the disease, and progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months, the New York City health department said.

“We have not seen a case like this before. It holds the potential for a very serious public health problem,” Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said.

The case was diagnosed in a New York man in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners.

Although drug resistance is increasingly common among patients who have been treated for HIV, cases of three-class antiretroviral-resistant HIV in newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients are extremely rare.