Important note: Information in this article was accurate in June 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, June 20, 2005
Staff Medical Writers
According to recent research from Thailand, "in developing countries, patients often present late with advanced AIDS and a very low CD4 cell count.
"A retrospective cohort study was conducted in HIV-infected patients who had been initiated into highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with CD4 cell count <50 cells/mm3. There were 159 patients of mean age 36.6 years and 60.4% had previous major opportunistic infections."
"Mean CD4 was 22 cells/mm3 and 80% had HIV RNA >100,000copies/mL. The majority of HAART regimens are non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based (81.8%).
"In as-treated analysis, 50, 71.2, 79.7, 79.4, and 80.1% of patients achieved undetectable HIV RNA (<50copies/mL) at 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 weeks, respectively. The corresponding mean CD4 counts were 95,125,166, 201, and 225 cells/mm3," wrote S. Sungkanuparph and colleagues at Mahidol University in Bangkok.
"Twenty-two patients (13.8%) had adverse drug events and half of these had to discontinue HAART," researchers said.
"Initiation of HAART in advanced AIDS with CD4 cell count <50 cells/mm3 is effective, safe, and well tolerated and should not be delayed," the authors concluded.
Sungkanuparph and colleagues published their study in International Journal of STD & AIDS (Initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in advanced AIDS with CD4 <50 cells/mm3 in a resource-limited setting: efficacy and tolerability. Int J STD AIDS. 2005 Mar;16(3):243-6.
For additional information, contact S. Sungkanuparph, Mahidol University, Division Infectious Disease, Dept. Medical, Faculty Med, Ramathibodi Hospital, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Publisher contact information for the International Journal of STD & AIDS is: Royal Society Medicine Press Ltd., 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE, England.
Keywords: Bangkok, Thailand, Advanced Aids, HAART, Viral Load, CD4 Counts, Resource-Limited Stetting.
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
Reference
Sungkanuparph S, Kiertiburanakul S, Manosuthi W, et al., Initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in advanced AIDS with CD4 < 50 cells/mm3 in a resource-limited setting: efficacy and tolerability, Int J STD AIDS. 2005 Mar;16(3):243-6.
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