Advertisement
The Body: The Complete HIV/AIDS Resource
Sign up for free e-mail updates!The Body en Espanol
  • E-mail E-Mail
  • Printer Friendly Printable Single-Page
  • Glossary Glossary
  • Bookmark and Share Share
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • Medical News

Drug Halt Can Reduce Resistance in Late-Stage AIDS

July 11, 2002


This article is part of TheBody.com's archive. Because it contains information that may no longer be accurate, this article should only be considered a historical document.

Advanced AIDS patients who have become resistant to treatment with all available HIV drugs might benefit from strictly controlled treatment interruptions, Dr. Christine Katlama of Hospital Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris said on Wednesday at the 14th International AIDS Conference. Katlama said taking these patients off their medications for a period of eight weeks in a well-monitored hospital setting made the virus in their bloodstream susceptible to drug treatment once again.

Structured treatment interruptions are a subject of debate among AIDS researchers. With results of several studies mixed, however, most researchers think the approach cannot currently be recommended except under closely monitored conditions.

The French team studied a group of 68 patients who had exhausted all currently available HIV drug therapies. Eligible patients had to have more than 50,000 copies of the virus per milliliter of blood and CD4 counts below 200 cells per microliter. Half the study group were immediately given a "salvage" therapy including as many as nine antiretroviral drugs, while the other half were given an eight-week break before starting the rescue treatment.

More than half of the patients in the deferred treatment group became responsive to at least one class of drugs they had previously been resistant to, Katlama reported. Interrupting the treatment seemed to have no adverse effects, she added, but the patients were already very sick.

Advertisement
The amount of virus in the blood of patients who did not have treatment interruption remained constant for 24 weeks after the study began. In contrast, viral levels in those who had a break in treatment dropped by a factor of ten after 24 weeks of resumed drug therapy.

Back to other CDC news for July 11, 2002

Previous Updates
 | Search the CDC archive


This article is part of TheBody.com's archive. Because it contains information that may no longer be accurate, this article should only be considered a historical document.

Adapted from:
Reuters Health
07.10.02

This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update.
  • E-mail E-Mail
  • Printer Friendly Printable Single-Page
  • Glossary Glossary
  • Bookmark and Share Share

See Also
Read More About Research/Trial Results

 

Advertisement