More than 17 percent of positive people in China possess a drug-resistant strain of HIV, Chinese researchers announced at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Reuters reports.
Positive people can run out of options quickly as only seven of the more than 20 HIV drugs are available in China. The virus usually mutates into a drug-resistant form only after people have been on medication for some time. The mutant strain was found in Chinese families with low and unstable incomes.
The Chinese government estimated last year about 700,000 people are infected with HIV.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
