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Opponents of early drug treatment
for HIV infection argue that it may lead to more resistant strains of HIV.
Researchers investigated how many new cases of drug-resistant HIV could result
in Los Angeles County if testing and rapid treatment of HIV patients with a combination
of antiretrovirals, known as the test-and-treat method, were followed. Neeraj
Sood, a clinical pharmacy professor at the University of Southern California’s
Schaeffer Center for Health Policy, and colleagues used national and local HIV
tracking data from 2000 to 2009 to produce a mathematical model of the spread
of HIV. They then compared the present policy with the test-and-treat policy.
The researchers determined that if
the county adopted a test-and-treat policy now, in 10 years there would be a 34-percent
reduction in new infections, but the number of drug-resistant HIV cases would
increase from 4.70 percent to 9.06 percent. They are not clear how the
increased resistance would affect the epidemic, but suggest that health
officials consider the problem of increased drug resistance when evaluating
treatment policies. The researchers noted that by increasing testing and not
changing present treatment protocols, patients would receive only half the
benefits of a test-and–treat plan, but drug resistance would not increase.
The full report, “Test and Treat in
Los Angeles: A Mathematical Model of the Effects of Test-and-Treat for the MSM
Population in LA County,” was published online in the journal Clinical
Infectious Diseases (2013; doi: 10.1093/cid/cit158).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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