(WB) Reporter's Notebook

(WB) Reporter's Notebook

The Washington Blade; Friday, February 7, 1997
Lisa Keen

RITONAVIR DOSING: A number of posters at the Fourth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections indicated that patients are having a harder time tolerating ritonavir compared to the other two protease inhibitors currently approved for marketing. While some patients have difficulty initiating therapy with the protease inhibitor ritonavir, the Community Research Initiative of New England found that patients could be more successfully started on the drug using a dosing schedule that gradually increases over the course of two weeks. The study found that side effects which cause many patients to stop therapy with ritonavir are minimized through this dosing schedule. A study from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland found that patients who had the most difficulty with ritonavir tended to be patients with more advanced HIV disease. "Treatment with Ritonavir earlier in the course of disease may be better tolerated and may provide a more substantial CD4 cell response," the poster said. Another complication that comes with the use of ritonavir is that it has to be refrigerated. But a report from an AIDS treatment advocacy group in Boston, Search for a Cure, suggested people who call pharmacists for this drug specifically ask the pharmacist to keep the filled prescription refrigerated until they arrive to pick it up.

MUTATION TEST: A special post-conference summary from the Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care reported that "a few" doctors are using tests to determine what mutations the viruses in their patients already have. The information has become more and more important in determining what specific drugs to include in a patient's treatment regiment. Since some patients are showing up now with virus that already contains some mutations resistant to some protease inhibitors, doctors are hoping to choose protease inhibitors which the patients aren't already developing resistance to. According to the Journal, these tests cost between $300 and $600. One test, called an Antivirogram, has to be sent to Belgium for analysis.

ANGER OVER ACCESS: A number of AIDS activists voiced their dismay that the Retrovirus Conference organizers put a cap on the number of people who could get into the scientific sessions. The level of dismay, in fact, prompted the organizers to hire an unprecedented number of guards to keep watch over every presentation and the daily press conferences. The dispute seemed to center over a request by ACT UP-Golden Gate that the conference provide more than 20 free passes to AIDS community activists. ACT UP's demands were quickly backed up by a number of national AIDS organizations, including AIDS Action Council and the Gay Men's Health Crisis, but the conference organizers did not budge. According to a statement released by the organizers, participants of the previous three conferences were surveyed and requested that the number of people in attendance -- researchers and activists -- be limited. The conference attendees were to be surveyed again this year.

WEB SITES: The following are just a few of the numerous Web sites where one can get additional details on the many studies presented during the Fourth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections:

http://www.retroconference.org, sponsored by the conference itself, includes abstracts and even slides from various presentations;

http://www.projinf.org, sponsored by Project Inform, an AIDS treatment advocacy organization based in San Francisco;

http://www.iapac.org, sponsored by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care;

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