suppress the virus and failed sooner.
"That means if you treat, you have less chance to block the virus
with the new drugs," said Dr Routy of the McGill University Health
Centre.
The study included 377 people from eight US and two Canadian cities who
had symptoms of recent HIV infection or evidence of it.
Across Europe, however, the story remains rather different. Swiss research
found that 1997 was the peak year for transmission of drug-resistant virus.
In 2000, resistant HIV genes were detectable in just four per cent of
people diagnosed with HIV, compared to 14.6 per cent in 1997.
French surveillance of 251 recently infected people found a higher level
of overall HIV drug resistance - 10 per cent - but failed to detect any
increase in resistance in the period 1999-2000, compared with 1996-1998.
Half of the 10 per cent had resistance to more than one class of antiretroviral.
Screening of people detected during early HIV infection at St Mary's Hospital
in London found no evidence of drug resistance in 15 individuals screened
during 2000 and 2001, suggesting that in the UK at least, the transmission
of drug resistant virus may currently be better controlled than in the
USA.
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Chimps: 'wiped out by Aids?'
Dutch researchers are theorising that an Aids-like epidemic
wiped out huge numbers of chimpanzees two million years ago, leaving modern
chimps with resistance to the HIV virus and its variants.
If true, the hypothesis would explain why chimps, who share more than
98 per cent of their DNA with humans, do not develop Aids.
The theory stems from a study of DNA in 35 chimps conducted by the Biomedical
