Officials say
data show New York HIV case is not a
“superstrain”

Health officials in New York and Connecticut say they've discovered the source of a strain of HIV reported in February in a gay New York City man that was resistant to nearly all anti-HIV drugs and rapidly progressed to AIDS, United Press International reports. The man's infection was not caused by a new, highly virulent "superstrain" of HIV as was initially feared, they now say.

Gary Blick, a physician in Norwark, Conn., reports that he has a patient who has been identified as the source of the strain of virus that infected the New York City man. Blick's patient and the New York City man had unprotected anal sex at a sex club in October 2004, at which point the Connecticut man transmitted the virus. The Connecticut man's HIV strain was already resistant to most anti-HIV drugs at the time he infected the New York man, Blick says.

New York City health officials quickly went public with the New York man's case, worried that his infection may have been caused by a new drug-resistant, rapidly progressing strain of the virus. But Blick says they may have sounded the public alarm prematurely, particularly because he says his patient is now on a successful salvage drug regimen of Sustiva and Fuzeon and has well-controlled HIV infection. The same two drugs also are now being used to successfully treat the New York City man, he says.

Health officials believe that the New York City man has unique immune system factors that allowed HIV to rapidly deplete his body of CD4 cells. Blick also says the man's use of crystal methamphetamine and frequent unprotected intercourse with multiple partners may be more of a factor in the man's rapid development of AIDS than anything having to do with the strain of virus he contracted.

The New York man admits to having unprotected sex with at least 10 other men between the time he was infected with the virus and when he learned of his infection. Efforts are under way to identify and test those men but are hampered by the fact that most of the man's sexual partners have been anonymous hook-ups, health officials say. Blick says it's possible that additional cases of the drug-resistant virus will be reported in the coming months if those men were infected during those sexual encounters.