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| |  Half of Injecting Drug Users With HIV in China Treated With HAART Maintain Suppression at 6 Months: Presented at AIDS 2010 By Ed Susman VIENNA -- July 23, 2010 -- About half of injecting drug users in China who are treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) maintain suppression of HIV for at least 6 months, researchers reported here at the 18th International AIDS Conference. "The rate of suppression for this population is not as good as among other populations," said Ye Ma, PhD, National Center for AIDS/STD Control & Treatment, and Care, Beijing, China. "But we are able to show that these patients can be treated." Among 180 patients who were naïve to antiretroviral therapy, 55% of this difficult-to-treat patient population was able to maintain viral suppression through 6 months, said Dr. Ma at her poster presentation on July 20. The study experienced a 20% loss to follow-up, and these patients were assumed to have had virologic failure. Observed virologic failures were 23.3% of the patient population; observed immunological failure was 9.8%, Dr. Ma said. The patients were initiated on HAART utilising a regimen with a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) backbone of lamivudine along with stavudine or zidovudine and the non-NRTI efavirenz or nevirapine. Dr. Ma noted that the percentage of injecting drug users with HIV in China has risen since an estimated 1% in 2004 to 15.7% in 2009. In 2009, the Chinese National Free Antiretroviral Treatment program had enrolled 79,946 individuals. She said she conducted her study because little information regarding the efficacy of treatment among injecting drug users has been available. The patients in the study, 97% of whom were men, were recruited from 8 antiretroviral treatment clinics in 2 provinces. All the patients were treatment-naïve and had either a history of injecting drug use or were current injecting drug users. Patients were treated if they met the current criteria in China for treatment: World Health Organization Stage III or IV or CD4-positive cell counts <200 copies/mL. Dr. Ma said that better adherence to treatment regimen in the injecting drug user population was accomplished by those individuals who were married or who initiated antiretroviral therapy in earlier WHO stages. Immunological failures appeared to be related to starting therapy with a CD4-positive cell count of <50, and attending fewer clinical visits during the 6-month period when compared with individuals who attended clinics more often. Virological failure was associated with missing pills and fewer visits to the clinics, she reported. "Improving clinical visit frequency and family support appear to have positive effects in keeping injecting drug users on successful suppressive therapy," Dr. Ma said. [Presentation title: Antiretroviral Treatment Outcome and Adherence Among 180 IDU AIDS Patients in China. Abstract TUPE0179]
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