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Study confirms effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs for HIV patients.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Hagmann, Michael |
| Copyright Year | 2003 |
| Abstract | An international team of researchers looking at more than 7700 HIV patients undergoing combination therapy with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs has reported an increase in survival rates and a significantly reduced risk of progression to full-blown AIDS. " Predicted survival for people with HIV-1 has continued to increase, since the introduction of HAART [highly active antiretroviral therapy], " say the authors — a collaborative team funded largely through a grant from the European Union. The study found that compared with pre-1997 data — when ARVs were first introduced to curb viral replication — the hazard ratio for death fell sharply to 0.47 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.39–0.56) in 1997, dropping further to 0.16 (CI = 0.12–0.22) in 2001. The authors also said that, compared with pre-1997 data, the hazard ratio of disease progression was 0.46 (CI = 0.38–0.55) in 1997, falling to 0.13 (CI = 0.09–0.21) by 2001. " The study shows that ARVs are among the most effective health care interventions. When you compare them, for instance, to anticancer drugs or to anti-hypertensives, ARVs are orders of magnitude better, " said Dr Jos Perriëns of the World Health Organization's HIV/ AIDS department. ARVs were widely available to most, if not all, HIV patients in high-income countries. The study's results, based soley on HIV-positive cohorts in Europe, Australia and Canada, show that ARVs prolong the lives of HIV patients in industrialized countries where hospitals are well equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. However, numerous small-scale pilot projects run by UNAIDS, a French initiative called the International Therapeutic Solidarity Fund (FSTI) and nongovernmental organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières — as well as the Brazilian national AIDS programme — have since demonstrated the feasibility of ARV treatment even in resource-poor settings. |
| Starting Page | 508 |
| Ending Page | 513 |
| Page Count | 6 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.scielosp.org/pdf/bwho/v81n12/v81n12a17.pdf |
| PubMed reference number | 14997251v1 |
| Volume Number | 81 |
| Issue Number | 12 |
| Journal | Bulletin of the World Health Organization |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Accidental Falls Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Antihypertensive Agents Antiretroviral therapy Cessation of life Confidence Intervals HIV Infections Patients Progressive Disease |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
