In brief: Harder-to-treat HIV strain found

A hard-to-treat strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been found in four gay men in King County, and authorities fear it could spread to more.

There is no evidence that the troublesome strain of HIV is spreading rapidly, but its appearance underscores the need for renewed emphasis on safe sex practices, officials in the Seattle-King County public health department said Thursday.

“There may be more cases we don’t know about,” said Dr. Bob Wood, the agency’s HIV-AIDS program director.

The same genetic strain of HIV was found over a 15-month period in all four men, methamphetamine users who each had multiple partners, but none is known to have had sex with any of the other three, officials said.

“That’s highly unusual,” said Dr. Peter Shalit, who treats HIV-AIDS patients and directs HIV-AIDS research at Swedish Medical Center.

One possibility is that there is a new strain of multidrug-resistant HIV that is spread more easily than previous drug-resistant strains, “definitely a scary prospect,” Shalit said.

Nationally, 2 percent to 3 percent of the HIV strains that people are infected with may be resistant to two to three classes of drugs, Sullivan said.

Before Thursday, health officials had identified 12 cases of multidrug-resistant HIV in King County, none as resistant to anti-viral drugs as the most recent four.

Washtucna, Wash.

Driver killed in Route 26 crash

A man was killed shortly before 8 p.m. Friday when his 2001 Ford Explorer rolled just east of Washtucna on state Route 26, about 50 miles west of Colfax.

No other vehicle was involved, and the victim was alone in his eastbound vehicle.

The Washington State Patrol hadn’t confirmed the man’s identity or notified his relatives late Friday night, but believed him to be a 56-year-old Olympia resident.

GRESHAM, Ore.

Police: Men pulled teeth from corpse

Two men were charged Friday with theft and abuse of a corpse after police found the body of a transient man whose gold teeth had been removed.

The medical examiner’s office ruled the death of Ronald Ferber, 56, a suicide. Police found the body Sunday.

Investigators said Alan Dean Storey, 37, of Gresham, and Juan M. Lopez-Cordero, 34, who lives in Multnomah County, filmed themselves extracting the teeth with the gold. The video was recovered at Storey’s residence, according to Sgt. Teddi Anderson, Gresham Police Department spokeswoman.

She said the suspects sold the gold from the teeth for $66 to a Portland metal refinery shop. Investigators did not find the teeth.

PORTLAND

Women arrested at war protest

Police arrested six women, some in symbolic wheelchairs, as they staged a demonstration Friday at a military recruiting center to protest the war in Iraq.

Cristy Murray, spokeswoman for the Surge Protection Brigade, said the protesters – mostly grandmothers – sat in front of the recruiting center and refused to let anyone in or out.

She said the action was in response to President Bush’s decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.

“We decided to prevent them from coming up with those troops,” Murray said. “We want to stop the recruiting of our valuable young people in this country to a place they don’t belong, to a place they kill or are getting killed.”

Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz said all six women were charged with interfering with a police officer while five also were charged with disorderly conduct. Operations were back to normal at the recruiting center by midday, he said.

Compiled from staff

and wire reports