China Finds Drug-Resistant HIV Strains In General Population
Posted on: Friday, 10 October 2008, 14:54 CDT
A top Chinese AIDS researcher warned Friday that drug-resistant strains of HIV are moving beyond high-risk groups into China’s general population.
Chen Zhiwei, director of the AIDS Institute in Hong Kong, called the trend "alarming", and said that Chinese AIDS patients were threatened due to the small number of HIV drugs available in the country.
Currently, China has only seven of the more than 20 available HIV drugs, meaning patients have limited options once they develop a strain of HIV resistant to certain drugs.
"All these drug-resistant mutations are in China now, they are emerging in Chinese patients. The major worry is whether the drug-resistant virus (strains) will spread," Chen told Reuters.
"We are studying whether that is happening, but that will be the case if you don't provide proper treatment.”
"If drug resistant virus (strains) spread in China, we don't have enough selection of (drugs) that are made available," Chen said, adding that researchers had urged China to import more varieties of HIV drugs.”
Although HIV infection is incurable, the virus can be treated with a cocktail of drugs. However, drug adherence is lacking in China's rural regions due to poor patient awareness, inaccessible healthcare and lack of personnel to educate patients about the importance of consistently taking their drug regimens.
Chen's warning follows an article he and his colleagues published last week in the journal Nature. The report outlines China’s sharply rising rate of HIV infections in women and gay and bisexual men.
As of October 2997, there were nearly 700,000 HIV/AIDS cases in China, an 8 percent increase from 2006. Approximately 38 percent of cases were attributed to heterosexual contact, a number more than triple the 11 percent in 2005, when the majority of infections occurred through intravenous drug use and blood transmissions.
Nationwide, HIV/AIDS cases among gay and bisexual men increased to 3.3 percent in 2007 from 0.4 percent in 2005.
In a separate study of China’s southwestern Yunnan province, a region known for a high number of HIV infections among drug users, researchers found that women now comprise 35 percent of those infected, up from 7.1 percent before 1996.
"The virus is moving into the general population. Signs are prevalent among women and vertical transmission (from mother to fetus)," Zhiwei said.
"We have to find a way to stop this or the change will be like South Africa. If there is no good prevention, transmissions will suddenly explode.”
Chen is particularly concerned about China’s porous southern border.
"Last year, we randomly tested travelers and found 30 people from Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam who were HIV positive. We try to test the bridging population and see what's going on," Chen said.
He said an HIV strain circulating in Yunnan, and also seen in Thailand and Myanmar, might be due in part to Chinese women working as prostitutes in Indochina.
"They travel to and from Indochina. They work in Thailand, then they bring the virus back," he said.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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