Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Treating TB, HIV Co-Infections Early, Aggressively Can Save Lives, Multiple Studies Show
"Treating tuberculosis (TB) and HIV infections at the same time can be a challenge for patients and their doctors, but attacking both diseases early and aggressively isn't harmful and could save the lives of those who are sickest," according to a global study led by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The study found that patients whose immune systems have been most damaged by HIV were 40 percent less likely to die or develop AIDS if they began antiretroviral treatment (ART) "two weeks after starting TB treatment, instead of waiting eight to 12 weeks, as is commonly done now," the newspaper writes.
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