She presented the results at the Eighth Annual Retrovirus Conference in Chicago. The patients were seen by doctors between 1995 and last May. Six percent of these had a virus that was resistant to two drugs. Most of those who catch HIV never realize it until years later. However, patients occasionally realize it soon after infection because they get temporary flu-like symptoms.
Some doctors recommend immediate drug treatment for such patients.
In these cases, Little said doctors should check their patients' viruses to see if they are resistant to any drugs before starting therapy. However, a record of the resistant virus is stored in patients' immune systems, and it can re-emerge once treatment starts. Another study, conducted by Dr. Hillard Weinstock of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, raises the possibility that the level of resistant virus varies greatly among different risk groups. Weinstock's team surveyed 603 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 10 cities. Two other studies from Switzerland and France also found high levels of resistant virus, though resistance was more common there than in the United States during the mid-1990s.