Antiretroviral Therapy

Immediate antiretroviral therapy (ART) refers to starting HIV treatment as soon as possible after the diagnosis of HIV infection, preferably on the first clinic visit (and even on the same day the HIV diagnosis is made). This strategy also is known as "rapid ART," "same-day ART," and "treatment...

PARTNER1, whose results were reported last year,(1) was one of the studies that supported current efforts to promote the growing scientific consensus supporting "Treatment as Prevention" (TasP) or Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U).

PARTNER1 evaluated HIV transmission risk in a European...

On May 18, 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization announced that cases of neural tube defects have been reported in babies of women with HIV who were on treatment with dolutegravir at the time of conception and during early pregnancy. The...

Bictegravir (BIC), a new integrase inhibitor, was recently approved by the FDA for use in a single-pill coformulation with TAF/FTC (brand name: Biktarvy) as initial therapy and as a switch regimen for patients who are already on a suppressive ART regimen and who have no history of...

In September 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially recognized that suppressing HIV through antiretroviral therapy (ART) prevents sexual transmission of HIV. In a "Dear Colleague" letter, CDC officials said, "people who take ART daily as prescribed and...

Bictegravir (BIC) is an investigational integrase inhibitor that is being studied as part of a coformulation with tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) and emtricitabine (FTC). Two Phase 3 trials comparing a single-tablet regimen of BIC/TAF/FTC (50/25/200 mg) with regimens containing dolutegravir (DTG)...

Highlights from Laura W. Cheever, MD, ScM, HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau Associate Administrator and Conference Co-Chair

The field of HIV/AIDS care and treatment continues to evolve rapidly. Groundbreaking developments in HIV research are regularly presented at international meetings and...

We know that very early treatment in acute HIV infection decreases HIV RNA; this study shows it also greatly decreases proviral DNA (and reservoir size). Researchers investigated 2 small cohorts of patients in Thailand with acute (and very early) HIV infection, 1 untreated and 1 treated with ART...

The PARTNER Study, a multisite European study, evaluated rates of HIV transmissions within serodifferent heterosexual and MSM couples (n = 548 and n = 340, respectively, contributed eligible data). The HIV-positive partners were on ART with HIV RNA levels of <200 copies/mL, and the couples...

Researchers at the 2016 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections presented results from a randomized double-blind, double-dummy switch study of TAF/FTC. Over 660 patients with virologic suppression on TDF/FTC-containing 3-drug regimens were either switched to TAF/FTC (200/10 mg...

The prevailing opinion among experts regarding the optimal CD4 T-cell count at which to start patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) has shifted several times during the evolution of HIV treatment. These shifts reflect attempts to strike a balance between preventing HIV-associated illness and...