"Ditiocarb Sodium and HIV Infection"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"Ditiocarb Sodium and HIV Infection"

Journal of the American Medical Association (08/14/91) Vol. 266, No. 6, P. 795
O'Meara, M. Patrick

Abstract: Distributing oral sodium diethyldithiocarbamate to HIV-infected patients once a week reduced opportunistic infections by 50 percent, according to a study by Hersh and colleagues, writes Dr. M. Patrick O'Meara of the VA Medical Center, Palo Alto, Calif. The researchers reccomended that the patients avoid alcohol for 12 hours prior and 48 hours after the weekly dose because the side effects could be similar to the antabuse effects common to alcoholics taking disulfiram. Ditiocarb is the principal metabolite of disulfiram. Once absorbed in the gut, disulfiram decreases to two molecules of ditiocarb. The two treatments are similar in biological effects, including efficacy in chelation therapy of nickel poisoning and potentiation of hyperbaric oxygen poisoning in rats. Disulfiram has been widely used in alcoholism for more than 40 years and is inexpensive and readily available. Clinical trials of disulfiram could be used in HIV and AIDS, concludes Dr. O'Meara.

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