Friday, November 12, 2010

HIV Treatment: The Sooner, The Better

From Aidsmap, by Gus Cairns

A study presented at the Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection in Glasgow has found that patients who started antiretroviral combination therapy (cART) within the first year after diagnosis were 36% less likely to experience treatment failure, and 65% less likely to develop HIV drug resistance on treatment, than patients in general.

The patients studied were in CASCADE, a unified ‘cohort of cohorts’ in 13 European countries, Australia, Canada and several countries in Africa. CASCADE, which stands for Concerted Action from Seroconversion to AIDS and Death in Europe, only includes patients with a known date of HIV infection (seroconversion). The current study examined the clinical history of 1223 patients who had started cART less than a year after seroconversion and included patients from 1997 onwards: it therefore included many patients who had started on what would now be regarded as suboptimal regimens.

The primary outcomes studied were the proportion of patients who developed virological treatment failure (defined as at least two consecutive viral load tests over 400 on treatment) and the proportion who developed HIV drug resistance.

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[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

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