HIGHLY publicised 鈥渢riple therapies鈥濃�攖he latest big hope in AIDS
treatment鈥攁re failing to live up to expectations, according to a San
Francisco study. Its findings suggest that the precisely regulated course of
pills is proving too complicated for most HIV-positive patients.
In clinical trials, a cocktail of drugs including the latest protease
inhibitors has produced astounding results. In some trials, levels of HIV in the
blood fell below detectable amounts in 90 per cent of patients.
But these studies relied on highly motivated volunteers who were likely to
stick to the complex and demanding dosing schedules required and put up with any
side effects of the treatment, says Steven Deeks of the University of California
at San Francisco. His team has found that the picture is far less rosy with more
typical patients. 鈥淲e were looking at patients who were not the idealised
research patients typically found in clinical trials,鈥� says Deeks.
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Deeks studied 136 patients taking triple therapy. In 72 of them, HIV remained
at detectable levels, he announced at the American Society for Microbiology鈥檚
37th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in
Toronto.