Research Shows HIV Treatment Should Begin Sooner

Each year in the United States, over 55,000 people contract HIV. Considering the wealth of AIDS/HIV information that has been dispersed since the early 1980s when HIV first arrived on the scene in the US, the statistics are staggering. Currently, both the International AIDS Society and the government recommend that a patient newly infected with HIV and not showing any symptoms of AIDS not begin any drug treatment right away due to the side effects these drugs often have. The guidelines state that when a patient’s T-cell count goes below 350, at that point the drug treatment should begin; however a recent study is showing that drug treatments should being much sooner.

The new study could potentially affect many hundreds of thousands of Americans infected with HIV and the care they currently receive. Results from the study have shown that waiting for a patient’s T-cell count to get low could cause irreparable harm to the patient’s already fragile immune system making that patient two times more likely to succumb to the disease in a few years. Previous thinking by doctors and specialists was that patients should forego the side effects brought on by the AIDS/HIV drug treatments until starting the drug treatment became absolutely necessary. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, states, “The data are rather compelling that the risk of death appears to be higher if you wait than if you treat.” This could mean that all of those hundreds of thousands Americans who are currently holding off on beginning a drug regimen might be urged by their physicians to begin one now.

HIV attacks the T-cells of a patient’s body which are the cells that help the body ward off germs and infection. Once the T-cells become compromised, the patient is exposed to many diseases that could possibly be fatal. Researchers and physicians have been able to develop a powerful combination of drugs that makes HIV more manageable and allows HIV patients to lead longer lives; however, a downside to these drugs are the multiple side effects that go along with them including, nausea, diarrhea and heart problems. Dr. Robert Schooley, the chief of infectious disease at U of C, San Diego, explains, “There was this thinking, maybe the drugs were worse than the disease. If you could wait as long as you possibly could wait, you would have fewer side effects. “
Dr. Mari Kitahata, the lead researcher in the study stated, “We found a 70 percent improvement in survival for patients who initiated therapy between 350 and 500 (T-cell count)” as compared to those who decided to wait for treatment. Recently, two other studies determined the same thing: patients who begin drug treatment even when their T-cell count is over 350 have better success with the drugs than those who wait. States Schooley, “These studies have all shown the same thing — that we were starting too late” and need to be consistent with treatment once it begins.

[tag]hiv-prevention, research, drug treatments, science, health[/tag]