For the first time, doctors have diagnosed a form of HIV that New York City health officials say has two striking characteristics: It is highly resistant to antiviral drugs in a patient who had never been treated with the medications, and it quickly developed into full-blown AIDS.The infection defied the typical HIV-to-AIDS profile by apparently developing into AIDS in a matter of months, officials said. "This case is a wake-up call," said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. He said the strain is one that "is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS."Dr. David Ho, director of Manhattan's Diamond AIDS Research Center, where the patient was diagnosed with HIV in December, said the combination of drug-resistant infection and "his rapid clinical and immunological deterioration is alarming."The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has alerted health care professionals and has asked them to test all newly diagnosed HIV cases not previously treated with anti-viral medicines for possible drug resistance.Resistant HIV strains have been seen before, but only in patients who have taken antiviral drugs over a period of years. And HIV infection generally takes 10 years or longer to transform into AIDS.
