Clear evidence against episodic HIV treatment

摘要

HIV-infected patients are at increased risk of opportunistic disease or death if they are treated using a strategy of episodic antiretroviral therapy guided by their CD4+count,rather than given continuous antiretroviral therapy,say researchers in The New England Journal of Medicine (2006;355:2283).The latest evidence against such a treatment strategy,which the researchers describe as "clear and compelling",is from the so-called SMART (strategies for management of antiretroviral therapy)study.The study was halted early in January when an analysis of interim data revealed that subjects on episodic treatment (see Panel)had more than twice the risk of disease progression than those taking continuous antiretroviral therapy (PJ,28 January,p98).