The Washington Blade; Friday, February 20, 1998
Lisa Keen

At this month's Retrovirus Conference in Chicago, more complete reports seemed to indicate that combinations using hydroxyurea, which has been used in cancer patients for years, might offer a benefit while reducing the costs of triple drug combinations. The largest study involved 144 patients in Switzerland who were given either ddI-d4T-hydroxyurea or ddI-d4T-placebo. After three months, 54 percent of the hydroxyurea combo group had viral loads below 200, while only 28 percent of the placebo combo group did. The mean decrease in viral loads was 2.3 logs for the hydroxyurea group, compared to only 1.7 logs for the placebo group.

The longest study thus far was a multi-center study involving sites in the U.S. and other countries (involving 20 patients) but its combination used ddI-hydroxyurea and a protease inhibitor. Nonetheless, the study, reported in a poster in Chicago, indicated that viral loads "remained undetectable in all patients" for as long as 17 months on such a combination.

According to one report, hydroxyurea could cost as little as $1,000 per year, compared to as much as $8,000 per year for protease inhibitors.

In brief ...

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is looking for people with HIV to test the safety and efficacy of interleukin-2 injections against the AIDS virus without the simultaneous use of other antiviral medications. Participants should have a CD4 count of 350 or greater and be willing to stay off other antivirals for up to a year. For more information, call Doreen Chaitt at 1-(800) 772-5464 Ext. 428.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: NIAID is also seeking volunteers with HIV infection for a study in which researchers will administer a four-drug regimen and attempt to determine where in the body the AIDS virus can hide from the treatment. Participants will be given a four-drug combination of one protease inhibitor (indinavir), two nucleoside analogs (AZT and 3TC), and the non-nucleoside analog (nevirapine) for at least a year. Some participants will have to undergo lumbar punctures and bone marrow biopsies. For more information, call Christian Yoder at 1-(800) 772-5464 Ext. 399.

SUSCEPTIBILITY ASSAYS: Researchers at this month's Retrovirus Conference in Chicago discussed the increasing usefulness of new blood tests which may be able to help patients and doctors decide which drugs have the greatest chance of attacking the patient's particular strain of HIV and to help them realize more quickly when one drug therapy is failing so they can switch from those drugs to others. The tests ûwhich include "phenotype assays" and "genotype assays"ûare not widely available now but should be soon, according to University of Pittsburgh researcher John Mellors. One problem, nonetheless, said Mellors, is that the genotype assays are very difficult to interpret and could provoke doctors and patients to switch therapies too soon.

TRANSPLANT VOLUNTEER FAILING: The San Francisco man with HIV who volunteered to undergo the first bone marrow transplant from a baboon donor in early 1995 acknowledged last weekend that his health has been deteriorating. Jeff Getty told a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that his viral load has been going up and his CD4 count down in the past year. According to UPI, Getty has had HIV infection for 18 years and felt he was "quite nearly dead" when he volunteered for the transplant. His health improved significantly for about a year, but researchers acknowledged even then that there was no evidence the transplant had enabled Getty's body to rebuild its immune system.

CONSENTING WITHOUT INFORMATION: A survey of 203 people who were seeking first-time treatment for HIV in hospitals in Boston and Providence found that 64 percent had engaged in sex during the previous six months. Of those 129 people (only 20 percent of whom were Gay), 60 percent had disclosed their HIV status to all their sex partners. Of the 52 people who had had sex but had not disclosed their HIV status to all their partners, only 43 percent used condoms all the time. The researchers, from Brown University, also found that people with only one sex partner were three times more likely to disclose their status than people with multiple partners. The report appears in the Feb. 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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