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Please Note: Due to volume considerations, not all questions can be answered. Questions most likely to be answered will be those of general interest to a broad group of visitors to this forum. Questions pertaining to a specific case; requests for diagnosis, medical advice, or second opinion; or requests for opinions about untested alternative therapies will generally not be answered.

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Valproic acid use in the treatment of HIV
Jul 21, 2006

Is it true that recent research has actually found out that adding sufficient doses of the anti-epileptic drug Valproic-acid plus adding Fuseon to your HAART regime can actually flush out latent HIV and significantly reduce a patient's viral load by 75% in 3 months? What worries me is that Valproic acid interacted with other ARV's, elevating liver enzymes and also lowered a patient's Hb, causing anemia. How safe is the use of this regime in managing patients that are afflicted with HIV?

Response from Dr. Daar

The data you referr to was from a very small study of few patients. Until more information is available this must be considered preliminary and should not be pursued in clinical practice pending more definitive demonstration of safety and overall acivity.

Best, Eric



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