Study identifies predictors of HIV drug resistance in patients beginning triple therapy
NEW YORK-- The best method for preventing HIV patients from developing drug resistance is a careful, dedicated adherence to their prescribed drug regimen, according to a long-term, large-scale study presented today in New York City at the American Medical Association Media Briefing, HIV/AIDS, The Drug Resistance Epidemic. Other key predictors of resistance include measures of how much virus was present in a person's bloodstream at the start of therapy and how much their immune status was compromised.
"We have a lot of studies showing that triple therapy works, as well as a lot of good information on the problem of resistance developing in triple antiretroviral therapy," said Richard Harrigan, Ph.D., director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV Research Labs at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver and lead author of the paper. "The problem with past studies is that they were limited to people in clinical trials and as people drop out they are lost to the study. In this study, we followed people beginning initial triple therapy for 30 months and were able to really get a sense of how the therapy works outside of clinical trials."
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