Better Treatment for HIV

[Angel]

One of the keys to the success of antiretroviral therapy for patients with HIV is finding a successful combination of drugs patients will take on schedule.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore believe they have identified just such a combination. In a study comparing two antiretroviral regimens, they found patients fared better on the one requiring a daily dose of three drugs. The other regimen required two daily doses of two drugs plus a daily dose of the third drug.

Patients were tested throughout the 48-week study to gauge the level of HIV RNA in their bodies and also to determine their CD4 cell counts.

Patients taking tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, emtricitabine, and efavirenz once a day were significantly more likely to have lower HIV RNA levels and higher CD4 counts than those taking two daily doses of zidovudine and lamivudine plus one daily dose of efavirenz.

The once-a-day treatment for the tenofovir-emtricitabine group also resulted in fewer adverse side effects leading to discontinuation of the other study drugs.

"The superior outcome in the tenofovir-emtricitabine group in the study provides further support for the use of this regimen in patients who have not previously received antiretroviral therapy," study authors say. They believe these findings have important implications for the choice of treatments for people with HIV.

SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005;354:251-260