Three decades after approval of the first-ever AIDS treatment, HIV medicine is seeing a new wave of innovation with scientists reporting positive data for improved drug cocktails and a novel experimental vaccine.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 20th July 2017 suggests that a cocktail of drugs, if provided at the beginning of the HIV therapy, can save over 10,000 lives per year.
Usually, within weeks of diagnosis, over 10 patients would have passed away. But, according to the study, the preventative therapy led to the fall of deaths by 27%. It also decreased tuberculosis by 28%, cryptococcal disease by 62% and candidiasis by 58%. A reduction in hospitalization by 17% was also seen. As a whole, lives of 3 patients among 100 treated were saved.
Among HIV-infected patients with advanced immunosuppression, enhanced antimicrobial prophylaxis combined with ART resulted in reduced rates of death at both 24 weeks and 48 weeks without compromising viral suppression or increasing toxic effects.
Source: news-medical.net, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1615822, reuters.com