The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7414 p212
19 August 2006

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US AIDS panel updates treatment recommendations

The International AIDS Society's USA Panel has issued updated recommendations for the treatment of HIV in settings where there is relatively unrestricted access to drugs and monitoring tools (JAMA 2006;296:827).

The recommendations cover when to start antiretroviral therapy, what to start, when to change and what to change. Initiation of antiretroviral therapy continues to be recommended in all symptomatic persons and in asymptomatic persons after the CD4 cell count falls below 350/µl and before it declines to 200/µl. A non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor or a protease inhibitor boosted with low-dose ritonavir each combined with two nucleoside (or nucleotide) reverse transcriptase inhibitors is recommended with choice being based on the individual patient profile.

The virologic target for patients with treatment failure is now set at a plasma HIV-1 RNA level below 50 copies/ml.