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Tests in [David Ho]'s laboratory and elsewhere have shown that the rare strain from the man whose case started the investigation is resistant to 19 of the 20 licensed anti-retroviral drugs. AIDS experts said that the strain may have led to the rapid onset of AIDS in the man or that his immune defenses may have been weakened by drug use or genetic factors

About 1 percent of all people infected are ''slow progressors,'' who take decades to get sick. The reasons are unknown, but some have genetic mutations that disable the receptors on the outside of the CD-4 immune system cells to which the virus attaches. The man in New York, who is clearly a fast progressor, has a ''dual-tropic'' strain of the virus, which means it can attach to two types of receptors, which are nicknamed the R5 and X4 receptors, on the outside of the CD-4 cell. In the vast majority of people who get infected, said Dr. Robert C. Gallo, a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, the first infections are attached to the R5 receptors. Only after several years do the X4 receptors kick in, and then the patient's condition often worsens quickly

About 1 percent of all people infected are 'slow progressors,' who take decades to become sick. At the other end of the spectrum will be 1 percent to 2 percent who are 'fast progressors,' who go to full-blown AIDS -- meaning low numbers of CD-4 immune-system cells and opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia - - in months. The average time between infection and AIDS is seven to 10 years. The New York man, who is clearly a fast-progressor, has a 'dual- tropic' strain of the virus, which means it can attach to two types of receptors, nicknamed the R5 and X4 receptors, on the outside of the CD-4 cell. In a vast majority of infected people, said Dr. Robert Gallo, a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, the first infections are attached to the R5 receptors. Only after several years do the X4 receptors kick in, and then the patient often goes downhill quickly

On the day after the announcement a rare strain of the AIDS virus was found in a New York City man, scientists said much work needed to be done to assess just how dangerous the virus is. Anthony Fauci, a prominent AIDS researcher and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he had seen cases where two sexual partners had been infected by the same strain and 'one does reasonably well, and the other progresses fulminantly' - meaning the immune system of the second person collapses rapidly. At the other end of the spectrum will be one to two per cent who are 'fast progressors,' who go to full-blown AIDS - meaning very low numbers of CD-4 cells and opportunistic infections like pneumocystis carinii pneumonia - in months. The average time between infection and AIDS is seven to 10 years

The strain, A/California/7/2004 (H3N2), was first identified from a specimen taken from a patient who had influenza in September, said Dr. Carol Glaser, chief of the viral branch of the California Department of Health Services. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta identified the strain as a new one in January, Glaser said. On Thursday at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, a panel of influenza experts recommended including the California strain in next season's vaccine. The panel meets twice a year to try to match the strains included in the vaccine recommended for each hemisphere with those expected to be circulating in those hemispheres during the next season. The vaccine is produced in sequential steps. The manufacturers start about January with the strain that they least expect to be changed, then move to the second strain. In a third step, they produce the newest strain, expected by the end of March. Then they produce the entire vaccine

In May 2003, the man tested negative for H.I.V., health officials said. Investigators believe he contracted H.I.V. in October 2004, when he engaged in unprotected anal sex with multiple partners while using crystal methamphetamine. The man found some of his partners on an Internet Web site, officials said, though they would not identify the site. Health officials said they were working with those who used the Web site to reach as many people as possible who might have been infected or are worried that they could have been. ''We believe that the transmission of treatment-resistant H.I.V. was a disaster waiting to happen, particularly in communities where safer sex is not practiced regularly and in light of people using drugs like crystal meth,'' Dr. [James Braun] said. ''All primary care providers in acute care settings need to know how to diagnose H.I.V. in its earliest stages and where to refer people so that new infections are properly worked up and treated.'' A rare strain of H.I.V. is resistant to three of the four classes of drugs used to treat the disease. Here is how H.I.V. replicates, and the points in the process where drugs can act

From 1951 to 1965, Dr. Crosby, who grew up in Oil City, Pa., was chief of the department of hematology at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, in Washington, D.C. From 1960 to 1965, he was also chief of the cancer chemotherapy program at Walter Reed General Hospital. While Dr. Crosby was at Walter Reed, his interest in a link between anemia and a bowel disorder, sprue, led him and Heinz W. Kugler to develop a device to remove tiny pieces of tissue from the small bowel, or intestine. The device became known as the Crosby- Kugler capsule, and its patent was assigned by Walter Reed to the two inventors

The World Health Organization said the health ministries of the three Asian countries still affected by polio are on target to wipe out the paralytic disease by the..

The pope entered an Italian hospital on Tuesday night suffering from what is presumed to be influenza, which can pose a serious threat to people with Parkinson's disease. That progressive brain disorder has plagued him for more than a decade. While the Vatican said his breathing problems had stabilized with treatment during the night, he remained in the hospital. The Vatican said Wednesday that the pope's breathing difficulties had been diagnosed as stemming from ''acute laryngeal tracheitis,'' an inflammation of the breathing tubes that lead from the mouth to the lungs. The pope was taken by ambulance from the Vatican to the Gemelli Polyclinic here late Tuesday night, in what his spokesman characterized as a ''mainly precautionary'' admission for ''breathing difficulty.'' From Tuesday night into the early hours of Wednesday morning, he received ''respiratory assistance therapies,'' which stabilized his condition, the Vatican said, and he was afterward able to sleep for ''some hours.''

Taken at face value, the complications the pope suffered are ''ominous and unusual,'' said Dr. William Schaffner, an American expert in influenza at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and is 84, is at high risk for a secondary bacterial pneumonia as a complication of influenza, and ''almost everyone would treat such a patient with combinations of intravenous antibiotics'' and an anti-influenza drug like Tamiflu, Dr. Schaffner said. Pope [John Paul I] has had influenza since Sunday, when he made his usual noontime appearance in St. Peter's Square, Father [Ciro Benedettini] said. Earlier on Tuesday, the Vatican announced that the pope's public appointments would be canceled for the next few days because of his illness. The last time sickness canceled a public appearance was in 2003 when the pope was ill with a stomach ailment