Antiretroviral Therapy

In a study conducted at three sites in South Africa, combination therapy with bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid led to favorable outcomes in most patients with highly drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Adding maraviroc to a standard three-drug antiretroviral therapy regimen in patients with advanced HIV did not improve outcomes, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Initial regimens of antiretroviral therapy for most people living with HIV cost up to $48,000 per year, and prices have risen by an average of 6% each year since 2012, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Adults in the U.S. with HIV are still at an elevated risk for atherosclerotic CVD compared with individuals without HIV, regardless of changes in antiretroviral therapies and increased statin use.

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests a high burden of hepatitis B infection among people living with HIV, with discrepancies that vary by region, level of development and the area’s HIV prevalence.

A multisite prospective cohort study of more than 1,500 pregnant women with HIV showed that antiretroviral, or ARV, prescribing practices among this population do not align well with national guidelines, with less than 50% of pregnancies associated with appropriate ARV prescriptions.

The top story in infectious disease last week was about new a guideline from the American Dental Association, which stated that treating toothaches with antibiotics may do more harm than good.

Although there have been significant advances in treatment since the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, pregnant women have about half as many treatment options as other adults with HIV, Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, from the University of California, San Francisco, reported at CROI 2019.

Infectious Disease News Chief Medical Editor Paul A. Volberding, MD, spoke with Healio about which types of cancer patients with HIV are more likely to develop, how HIV treatments have changed that risk, how cancer affects HIV treatment and how to increase cancer treatment among these patients.

Medication errors during hospitalization and during care transitions are common for patients living with HIV and others who receive antiretrovirals, and these errors can cause adverse effects and viral resistance, resulting in limited options for future treatment, researchers noted.