PI Perspective 34 -- March 2002
- A Tale of Two Tragedies
- When the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on September 11, Americans were stunned by the tragedy unfolding before them on television. Thousands of lives were lost in the outcome, resulting in an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy, support and demands for action. Most people felt they had never seen or experienced anything like it before. To a smaller portion of the population, however, the shock of sudden and unforeseen disaster was strangely reminiscent of what we experienced in the onset of the AIDS epidemic.
- Anti-HIV Therapy Update
- Recently there have been good and bad news from the anti-HIV drug development front. First the good news, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved tenofovir (Viread) for the treatment of HIV disease. This is welcome news for people who need a new drug to put together a second or third line regimen and may even be an important new choice for first line therapy.
- Community Alert: T-20
- Starting November 27, 2001 at 3pm EST, a study allowing for access to the fusion inhibitor T-20 (Pentafuside) began.
- Lipodystrophy Update
- Lipodystrophy is the term given to describe a series of changes in body composition [loss of fat in the legs, arms, or face, breast enlargement, central obesity (sometimes called protease paunch), dorsal fat pads (known as buffalo hump), etc.] as well as changes in laboratory markers associated with how the body processes fats and sugars (e.g. cholesterol and triglyceride changes, also called lipids).
- Strategies for Third Line Therapy
- One area of anti-HIV therapy research that has been inadequately addressed is strategies around third line therapy regimens. As a result, there is only a modest amount of data to guide physicians and patients in making treatment decisions in this setting. Third line therapy is usually defined as a regimen for an individual who has developed resistance to at least one drug in all three classes of anti-HIV therapies [nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) and protease inhibitors] or has failed two treatment regimens.
- Highlights from the 2001 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
- Preliminary results were presented from the FOCUS study, which compares saquinavir (Fortovase) + ritonavir (Norvir) taken once a day to efavirenz (Sustiva), which is also taken once a day. FOCUS enrolled 161 people who received either 1,600mg of saquinavir + 100mg of ritonavir or 600mg of efavirenz. Both groups also received two nucleoside analogue drugs. Volunteers had not previously taken anti-HIV therapies and had an average viral load of about 56,000 copies HIV RNA and CD4+ cell counts averaging 350.
- Pulmonary Hypertension
- People living with HIV have long had enough to worry about from the most common opportunistic infections and HIV-related conditions. There are, however, a number of less well-known illnesses for which HIV is considered a risk factor. When people afflicted with these conditions turn to general sources of HIV information, they often find little or no recognition of the connection with HIV. Consequently, they often feel isolated and alone in facing their new problem and can't get much help from their usual support mechanisms.
- A Potent Weapon in the Battle Against HIV: Your Own Immune System
- The goal of HIV vaccines is to teach the immune system new and hopefully better ways to win the battle against the virus. There are different types of immune responses, those we were born with (innate immunity) and those we "learn" (acquired immunity). HIV vaccines exploit the side of the immune system that is learned (acquired) by providing information to cells in new ways in hopes of enhancing their learning and making them more effective fighters.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.©1980, 2001. AEGiS.