‘Death’ of Hit-Hard, Hit-Early HAART Should Prompt Reevaluation of HIV Prevention and Treatment, Op-Ed Says
Soon-to-be-published HIV treatment guidelines from the Public Health Service will nullify the "glowing predictions" of four years ago concerning highly active antiretroviral treatment, and will likely prompt a reevaluation of AIDS treatment practices, freelance writer Bruce Mirken says in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed. Because of the toxicity of HAART, the new recommendations urge doctors to delay implementing the therapy until a patient's CD4 cell count is "fairly advanced." The new guidelines signal that "the hopes that ... an early attack [of HAART] could eradicate HIV are now dead," Mirken states. While the new recommendations could be an "earthquake" to the AIDS medicine community, doctors, patients and advocates need to "get to work" on new approaches to AIDS treatment, Mirken writes. Among his recommendations:
- "Redouble" research to discover "more effective, less toxic" drugs and increase st