Earlier treatment reduces HIV-AIDS death risk
An international study on treating HIV-AIDS shows that the risk of death from the disease could drop by as much as 94 per cent if antiretroviral treatment was started earlier.
The study, which tracked data from more than 17,500 patients between 1996 and 2005, is the first of its kind to measure the risk of death based on the progress of infection at the beginning of treatment.
Current health guidelines recommend that treatment begins once the reduction of a specific blood cell (called CD4+) drops to below 350 cells per milliliter.
Robert Hogg, SFU health sciences professor and the director of the Drug Treatment Program at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), is one of a host of researchers from across the country to participate in the collaborative cohort study.
Hogg says existing guidelines were based on older medications that had more side effects than those currently administered.
“The data supports that new medications are more effective and better tolerated so treatment can start early,” Hogg notes. “When applied earlier the medications provide better support for the immune system and help decrease inflammation by deterring replication of the HIV virus.”
The study currently appears in the online version of the New England Journal of Medicine and will be published in the journal’s print version April 30.
Hogg is head of a new network aimed at improving treatment in Canada. Over the next five years the Canadian Observational Cohort will track 5,000 people who started on antiretroviral medication in 2000.
Hogg will be among participants at the annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research in Vancouver (Westin Bayshore) April 23-26, called Facing the Evolving Epidemic. The conference will focus on advances in HIV prevention, care and treatment.
Experts will attend from across the country and internationally, including International AIDS Society (IAS) President and director of the BC-CfE, Dr. Julio Montaner, lead scientist in the development of Triple Therapy, and Elizabeth Pisani, a UK researcher who was involved in developing the World Health Organization guidelines for Second Generation HIV surveillance.
For more details see the conference website:
http://www.seatoskymeetings.com/cahr2009/index.html
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