Search

The number of individuals diagnosed with HIV in China has risen dramatically in the last two years coincident with increased awareness and an attitude change within government. UNAIDS has suggested that China could have 10 million HIV infected people by 2010. However, antiretroviral treatments and HIV testing are not yet widely available and infected individuals often live in remote areas. It is unlikely that cheaper, locally produced, generic antiretroviral formulations will be available in China in the near future. Consequently, alternative strategies to manage HIV infection are being considered including the use of hydroxyurea, chloroquine and traditional Chinese herbal medicines. It is recognized in China that prevention and educational strategies will need to be at the forefront of approaches to control this epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CCR5 antagonists may provide a well-tolerated switch option for patients experiencing tolerability or toxicity of their antiretroviral regimen. We analyzed stored samples from patients undergoing planned treatment interruptions for reasons other than virological failure, in order to analyze tropism evolution during fully suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART). Two of 37 patients showed evidence of switching. Tropism switching after suppressive ART was uncommon in this cohort. Pretreatment human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) RNA tropism testing may help guide the switch to CCR5 antagonists in patients with undetectable HIV RNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Therapy for infection with HIV-2 remains limited. We report an HIV-2-infected patient in whom genotyping demonstrated PI, NRTI and NNRTI resistance, with a subsequent response to raltegravir- and maraviroc-based therapy. Further studies are required to assess the clinical efficacy of maraviroc in HIV-2 infection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a study which examines the effectiveness of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI)-based regimes among antiretroviral-naive patients who are undergoing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). The study analyzed the data of 994 antiretroviral-naive patients who were taking efavirenz and nevirapine with dual-nucleoside analogue backbones. It reveals no significant differences between efavirenz and nevirapine on the success and failure of the treatment.