Results from a recent study show that most sepsis infections in HIV-positive patients who are admitted to hospital intensive care units are acquired from hospitals or other health care settings, rather than being HIV-related illnesses. In addition, the risk of death in HIV-positive patients is more closely linked with the severity of the infection than factors relating to HIV.

“With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy, [non-HIV-related] infections are becoming a more common reason for people with HIV to…

Results from a recent Australian study show that switching to Truvada or Epzicom can help improve limb fat loss caused by older antiretroviral drugs like zidovudine or stavudine.

The study authors also noted that participants with the most severe limb fat loss had the largest gain in limb fat after switching.

“This is good news for participants with severe loss of limb fat, as switching treatment can positively change their body image,” said Allison Humphries, Senior Clinical Project Coordinator at…

Results of a recent study show that the 10-year survival rates for children born with HIV who receive highly active antiretroviral therapy are more than double those for children who do not. As a result, survival rates have improved dramatically over the past two decades.

Most (84 percent) of the children in the study who did not survive were born before 1994, at least three years before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) became widely available.

“As antiretroviral utilization milestones were…

Interim results from an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial show that the once-daily investigational integrase inhibitor dolutegravir may be as safe and effective as Sustiva in previously untreated HIV-positive adults.

“The most important message from the study is that dolutegravir is a safe and highly potent drug which can be given at low doses without a pharmacologic booster once daily,”  said Dr. Jan van Lunzen, a professor at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, in Hamburg, Germany and lead author of…

Interim results from a Phase 3 clinical trial show that the investigational integrase inhibitor elvitegravir, taken once daily, may be as effective and safe as twice-daily Isentress in treatment-experienced HIV-positive adults.

“[Patients] could use elvitegravir [once daily] instead of Isentress [twice daily] in combination with a boosted protease inhibitor with the same efficacy and safety,” said Dr. Jean-Michel Molina, a researcher at the Hôpital Saint Louis and University of Paris and lead author of the study.

The study authors noted…