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medpundit |
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004After six months of antiretroviral therapy, 75 percent of the women who had not taken nevirapine at delivery had no detectable HIV in their bloodstreams. Of the women who had taken the drug but showed no viral resistance to it, 53 percent had undetectable "viral loads." However, among those who had been given the drug and whose virus had developed resistance to it soon after delivery, only 34 percent had no detectable HIV. Not enough time has passed to know whether the women who got nevirapine will ultimately decline faster and die earlier than women who did not get the drug. But, all is not lost for mothers and babies. The article also mentions the success rate of various regimens now used to prevent neonatal infection: The researchers reported that women who took both AZT and nevirapine transmitted HIV to their infants only about 2 percent of the time. That is below the 7 percent rate seen with AZT alone and far below the 15 percent seen with nevirapine alone. Several experts here said they expect AZT will now be added to nevirapine-alone regimens in Africa and elsewhere, provided women come for prenatal care in time Given the high rates of resistance in mothers who got nevirapine, maybe it's better to use AZT alone. That extra 5% performance of a combined regimen just doesn't seem worth the risk. posted by Sydney on 2/10/2004 09:12:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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