HAART reduces rate of progression to AIDS
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can reduce the rate of progression to AIDS or death by 86 per cent in HIV patients, researchers have found, and the therapy becomes more effective over time.
Analysing data from the Swiss HIV Cohort study, the researchers compared
HAART with no treatment in 2,161 patients and with dual therapy in 1,276
patients. They say that the increased benefit seen with HAART is to be
expected considering declines in CD4 counts and increasing risk of opportunistic
events without therapy.
The researchers also found that HAART was less beneficial for patients
who were thought to have contracted the virus via intravenous drug use
(hazard ratio for progression to AIDS or death 0.27, 95 per cent confidence
interval 0.12–0.61) compared with other patients (0.08, 0.03–0.19).
Possible explanations for this include that adherence to HAART is likely
to be worse in this group of people, and they are more likely to be co-infected
with hepatitis C and have an increased risk of death from overdose or
violent causes (Lancet 2005;366:378). |
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