News (Updated February 12,
2005)
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In a statement released Friday, the city's health department said the new strain, known as 3-DCR HIV, does not respond to three classes of anti-retroviral medication, and also greatly shortens the interval between infection and the onset of full-blown AIDS.
The first case was diagnosed last week in a man in his late 40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal intercourse, often while using the highly potent narcotic crystal methamphetamine.
"This case is a wake-up call," said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. "First, it's a wake-up call to men who have sex with men, particularly those who may use crystal methamphetamine."
Detection of the new HIV strain came shortly after two New York men were diagnosed with a rare form of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia, and Frieden said both cases should send alarm bells ringing in the gay community.
"This community successfully reduced its risk of HIV in the 1980s, and it must do so again to stop the devastation of HIV/AIDS and the spread of drug-resistant strains," he said.
"Now we've identified this strain of HIV that is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS," he added.
The onset of AIDS usually occurs more than 10 years after initial infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). But in the case diagnosed last week, the time lag appeared to be just two to three months.
More than 88,000 New Yorkers are known to be living with HIV/AIDS, and an estimated 20,000 are believed to be infected without knowing it.
Wed Feb 9, 2005 05:26 PM ET
By Alison McCook
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly 4 out of 10 parents with HIV infection avoid casual contact such as hugging, kissing or sharing utensils with their children out of fear of infection, according to the results of a new study.
Some parents said they were afraid of transmitting HIV to their children or catching an opportunistic infection from contact with their children. The parents were more likely to avoid contact because they were afraid of transmitting HIV than because they feared catching something from their kids.
Lead author Dr. Mark A. Schuster of the University of California, Los Angeles, cautioned that parents' fears of transmitting HIV through casual contact are unfounded. "There are no cases that we've ever heard of parents transmitting HIV to a child through casual contact," he told Reuters Health. "There's no reason for parents to withhold their affection."
Parents who hesitate to hug or kiss their children may only be "diminishing their relationship" with their children, Schuster noted. This is particularly important if parents cut back on affection after being diagnosed with HIV, he added -- since children tend to blame themselves for things that happen at home, they may fear they did something wrong.
Many American children live with an HIV-infected parent, Schuster and his colleagues report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Right now, 28 percent of the people being treated for HIV infection in the U.S. have children younger than 18 years old, and most HIV-positive mothers live with their children.
Despite public health messages about what can and cannot transmit HIV, many people remain confused, the authors add. For instance, a recent survey showed that more than one third of adults believe you can get HIV from kissing, and one quarter said they could become infected after sharing a drinking glass.
To determine the effects of HIV infection on parent-child interaction, Schuster and his team interviewed 344 HIV-positive parents about their fears of transmission to or from their children.
They found that 42 percent of parents were afraid of catching something from their kids, and 36 percent were afraid of transmitting HIV to their children. More than one quarter said they avoided certain interactions "a lot" out of transmission fears, while 40 percent said they held back "a little."
"The fear of catching an opportunistic infection is not unrealistic," the researchers note. "Parents are advised to avoid contract when their child has an active infection, such as a cold, but not to avoid contact on a routine basis."
Parents who have not had flu shots should be careful if their child develops the flu, Schuster added.
Nearly one out of five parents said they avoided kissing their children on the lips because they were afraid of transmitting HIV, and roughly the same percentage didn't share utensils. A small percentage also said they didn't hug their children or kiss them on the cheek because of HIV, the authors note.
Schuster said he was encouraged to see that most HIV-positive parents did not withhold affection, and the vast majority didn't hesitate to hug or kiss their children on the cheek. Hopefully, over time, more parents will get the message that casual contact is perfectly safe, he added.
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, February 2005.
| Thursday February 10, 05:03 PM |
US physicians recommend routine testing for AIDSWASHINGTON (AFP) - US physicians in two government-funded studies said routine testing for AIDS for the entire US population would reduce the rate of infection and perhaps "influence the course of the epidemic." The reports' findings, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, said the cost of testing all adults for AIDS and treating those found to be HIV positive would be more than offset by the fewer number of new AIDS cases and the advantages of early treatment."Given the availability of effective therapy and preventive measures, it is possible to improve care and perhaps influence the course of the epidemic through widespread, effective and cost-effective screening," said Dr. Samuel Bozzette in an introduction to the two studies. After the initial outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s, US health authorities recommended routine testing in large urban areas with rates of infection at more than one percent of the population, and in high-risk groups such as homosexuals and intravenous drug users. "A failure to institute such screening at doctors' offices and clinics would be a critical disservice to patients with the AIDS virus and the future health of the nation," said Bozette, of the University of California and a member of the federal research group Rand Corp. Dr. Robert Janssen, head of preventive systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC will examine the reports' recommendations over the next two years. He also said the CDC had called for new, faster AIDS tests that will provide results of HIV infection in one-and-a-half hours, instead of the current one or two weeks. One of the two studies, conducted by the universities of Stanford and Duke, indicated that if everybody in the United States tested for AIDS once a year, the rate of infection would drop by 21 percent. It also showed that early HIV detection extends the life of those infected by 1.52 years thanks to the prompt treatment. The second test, conducted by the universities of Yale and Harvard, showed that routine AIDS tests every three to five years would be cost-effective for the overall population, excluding low risk groups such as monogamous heterosexuals. According to CDC estimates included in one of the studies, more than half the 40,000 new AIDS cases detected every year in the United States are people who did not know they were infected. They represent 280,000 of the 950,000 people currently infected in the country. Treatment for AIDS costs at least 15,000 dollars per year per person, the CDC said. |