DRUG-RESISTANT STRAIN OF HIV MAY BE LINKED TO METH USE

It's a case that has New York's gay community reeling, but it's only a
matter of time before someone in Vancouver tests positive for
drug-resistant HIV.

All the ingredients are in place to complete the "recipe" here, says the
vice-chair of the B.C. Persons With AIDS Society -- most importantly, a
large population of gay men using crystal methamphetamine.

"I would be surprised if it didn't show up here," says Glyn Townson.

A New York man in his 40s was recently diagnosed the first known gay man
with a drug-resistant strain of HIV.

He had unprotected sex with multiple partners, often while high on crystal
meth.

His unique strain of HIV appears to have developed into full-blown AIDS
within two or three months of his diagnosis.

It normally takes 10 years. There is some speculation that meth use
contributed to the rapid onset because the man routinely failed to keep up
with his HIV medication regimen.

Cases like his, also linked to meth abuse, have now turned up in
Connecticut and California.

Townson, who does not use the drug, says meth abuse in Vancouver's gay
community is rampant, and the drug's liberating aphrodisiac effects are
clearly dangerous. The Canadian AIDS Society notes there is an increased
chance of HIV infection through unprotected sex while under the influence
of meth.

"It's basically like turning your internal thermostat up. Inhibitions are
gone," Townson says.

Concern over condom use "goes out the window" and patients prescribed HIV
or AIDS medications forget to take them as they binge on meth, he says.