23536
Bluelight Crew
full http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...whoonga-abuse-of-aids-drugs-stokes-resistance
Opportunists who market street drugs may be undermining the global struggle against AIDS.
In South Africa, two mainstay HIV drugs have found their way into recreational use. That may help explain why some HIV patients are resistant to these front-line medicines even if they've never been in treatment before.
It can happen in two ways.
People with HIV who smoke so-called whoonga — an illicit concoction of an AIDS medication and a street drug, like marijuana or heroin — can develop mutant strains of the virus resistant to the medication. So when they need treatment, it doesn't work.
Or people can become infected with a strain of HIV that came from someone who used whoonga.
"One large study showed 3 to 5 percent of people with HIV were coming in with pre-treatment resistance" to antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV, Dr. David Grelotti tells Shots.
Grelotti is a Harvard School of Public Health researcher who co-authored a commentary on the phenomenon in The Lancet Infectious Diseases published Tuesday.
He says street use of efavirenz (sold as Sustiva in the U.S.) may exploit the HIV drug's well-known tendency to cause especially vivid and colorful dreams and other central nervous system effects. Hypothetically, that could enhance the effects of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and other illicit drugs.
Another HIV medication, ritonavir, (brand name Norvir) is believed to boost or prolong the effect of some street drugs, such as MDMA or Ecstasy.
Recreational users reportedly crush tablets of the antiretroviral medication and mix the powder with other drugs for smoking.
full http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...whoonga-abuse-of-aids-drugs-stokes-resistance
Opportunists who market street drugs may be undermining the global struggle against AIDS.
In South Africa, two mainstay HIV drugs have found their way into recreational use. That may help explain why some HIV patients are resistant to these front-line medicines even if they've never been in treatment before.
It can happen in two ways.
People with HIV who smoke so-called whoonga — an illicit concoction of an AIDS medication and a street drug, like marijuana or heroin — can develop mutant strains of the virus resistant to the medication. So when they need treatment, it doesn't work.
Or people can become infected with a strain of HIV that came from someone who used whoonga.
"One large study showed 3 to 5 percent of people with HIV were coming in with pre-treatment resistance" to antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV, Dr. David Grelotti tells Shots.
Grelotti is a Harvard School of Public Health researcher who co-authored a commentary on the phenomenon in The Lancet Infectious Diseases published Tuesday.
He says street use of efavirenz (sold as Sustiva in the U.S.) may exploit the HIV drug's well-known tendency to cause especially vivid and colorful dreams and other central nervous system effects. Hypothetically, that could enhance the effects of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and other illicit drugs.
Another HIV medication, ritonavir, (brand name Norvir) is believed to boost or prolong the effect of some street drugs, such as MDMA or Ecstasy.
Recreational users reportedly crush tablets of the antiretroviral medication and mix the powder with other drugs for smoking.
full http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...whoonga-abuse-of-aids-drugs-stokes-resistance
