AIDS drugs

  • AIDS drug guidelines: Stop the nukes!

    Stop the nukes! No, not nuclear weapons. Well, yes, those too, but today I’m writing about the increase in reports I’m seeing from the AIDS drug medical literature calling for an end to the use of nucleoside(tide) reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), not-so-ironically referred to as “nukes”. As I have written previously, there have been rumblings from clinicians and researchers in the medical literature since at least 2010 to get rid of the NRTI class of antiretroviral drugs entirely from treatment guidelines.

    Unfortunately, it is unlikely that this change will occur at anything comparable to the speed with which AZT and other poison pills were “fast-tracked” to market more than 25 years ago.

  • LOTTI: Take a vacation from AIDS drugs

    The LOTTI study, based in Italy, found that patients taking highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) for HIV/AIDS who took a “vacation” from drug treatment fared as well as those who remained on their drugs continuously.
    This study offers a desperately needed offer of hope for those in treatment who cannot tolerate the AIDS drugs’ toxicity, or who want to avoid know side effects such as disfigurement and organ failure.