Drug-Resistant Viruses Fuel Need for HIV Drug Sequencing

Although antiretroviral "drug cocktails" have extended and improved the quality of life for many people with HIV, drug-resistant viruses now "threaten to take back hard-won ground in the fight against" AIDS, CNN reports. At a media conference on drug-sequencing strategies sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday, University of California-San Diego associate adjunct professor of medicine Dr. Richard Haubrich explained that today "super pathogens" exist among bacteria and HIV, meaning that "some therapies don't work as well as others." To increase the survival and health of patients, doctors must discern the best combinations of drugs and the proper sequence of drug combinations, Dr. Benjamin Young of the Rose Medical Group in Denver said. Deciding which of the 17 currently available antiretroviral drugs to prescribe depends on "the one the patient is most likely to take and be empowered to take," Young added, noting that patients are less likely to carefully follow a complex regimen of many drugs. Side effects and toxicity also are challenges for doctors writing