Fewer Drugs, Same Outcome: Simpler HIV regimens are effective
By Eric Jaffe
The current standard of HIV treatment isn’t improved by the addition of a fourth drug, a 3-year study concludes. Moreover, after their disease is under control, some patients can maintain health by taking only a single drug, according to a smaller, shorter study.
To keep HIV from replicating, clinicians have over a decade or so changed standard patient therapy from a one-drug regimen to two medications and then to three. Each drug attacks the virus in a different way. Some physicians have argued that adding a fourth drug is the next step, but four-drug clinical trials have been inconclusive.