People with HIV need to start antiretroviral treatment sooner, according to South African and international specialists gathered for a major Aids conference in Cape Town this week.
Dr Pedro Cahn, a past president of the International Aids Society, which is meeting in Cape Town, said: “Everyone agrees that a CD4 of 350 should be the minimum standard.”
In fact, most patients start therapy with far lower CD4 counts, said Dr Francois Venter, president of the HIV Clinicians Society of Southern Africa, as they tend to seek medical help only when they fall sick, and not as the result of regular testing.
If patients with CD4s of 350 were offered treatment, the number of people needing the drugs would soar. In the past seven years, about four million people worldwide have been put on antiretrovirals, and about six million more need treatment at the CD4 threshold of 200.
Dr Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the International Centre for Aids Care and Treatment Programmes in the US, said the world had seen a dramatic decline in Aids deaths since 1996 — but now non-Aids -related mortality was increasing.
She said that people with HIV were at higher risk of dying from non-Aids related diseases as they aged, like stroke or renal failure, than those without the virus. El-Sadr said studies had shown that deferring treatment increased the risk of death. Courtesy The Times Of London.
Dr Pedro Cahn, a past president of the International Aids Society, which is meeting in Cape Town, said: “Everyone agrees that a CD4 of 350 should be the minimum standard.”
In fact, most patients start therapy with far lower CD4 counts, said Dr Francois Venter, president of the HIV Clinicians Society of Southern Africa, as they tend to seek medical help only when they fall sick, and not as the result of regular testing.
If patients with CD4s of 350 were offered treatment, the number of people needing the drugs would soar. In the past seven years, about four million people worldwide have been put on antiretrovirals, and about six million more need treatment at the CD4 threshold of 200.
Dr Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the International Centre for Aids Care and Treatment Programmes in the US, said the world had seen a dramatic decline in Aids deaths since 1996 — but now non-Aids -related mortality was increasing.
She said that people with HIV were at higher risk of dying from non-Aids related diseases as they aged, like stroke or renal failure, than those without the virus. El-Sadr said studies had shown that deferring treatment increased the risk of death. Courtesy The Times Of London.
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