What Doctors Don't Tell YouA leading researcher claims the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is fighting back against antiviral drugs with the emergence of new drug resistant strains.
Two years after the introduction of the drug zidovudine (Retrovir), strains of the virus which are 100 times less susceptible to the drug have been detected in samples, says Dr Douglas Mayers from the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
Transmission of the drug resistant virus is occurring via sexual contact, intravenous drug use, at birth, and accidental exposure of healthcare workers to infected blood, he says (JAMA, 1998; 279: 2000-2).
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
