Drug package that saves lives after late HIV diagnosis

Thursday July 20th, 2017

People diagnosed late with HIV can benefit from a low-cost cocktail of drugs aimed at preventing a range of infections, according to a major African study conducted led by British researchers.

The study found that the enhanced anti-infection package saved three lives for every 100 patients.

The treatment, reported last night in the New England Journal of Medicine, used four drugs as well as the single antibiotic that is standard practice and anti-viral drugs.

These were a drug for TB, an anti-fungal, an additional antibiotic, azithromycin, and an anti-worm drug.

Some 1,800 patients of all ages took part in the study in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Within six months of treatment 12% of patients taking standard treatment died as did 9% of those taking the enhanced package of drugs, known as REALITY. The extra drugs cost about £4 a patient.

Professor James Hakim, from the University of Zimbabwe, said: “Another important result we saw was that although the average CD4 count among the 1,805 people starting treatment in REALITY was only 36 cells per cubic millimetre, which is very low, half of them had either no symptoms or only very minor ones.

"This shows the importance of measuring CD4 counts before starting HIV treatment, as there is no other way to identify many who would benefit from this package.”

Fellow researcher Professor Di Gibb, from University College, London, UK, added: “We found that not only did this additional drugs package prevent early deaths among people starting HIV treatment with low CD4 counts, but that it also reduced the numbers of severe AIDS illnesses and hospital admissions.”

NEJM 19 July 2017

Tags: Africa | Flu & Viruses | Pharmaceuticals | UK News

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