HIV/AIDS Treatment Information

Other important documents in HSTAT include the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference Reports and Technology Assessment Reports the HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service (ATIS) resource documents the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration s Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT) Treatment Improvement Protocols (TIP) and Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (SAMHSA/CSAP) Prevention Enhancement Protocols System (PEPS) the Public Health Service (PHS) Preventive Services Task Force s Guide to Clinical Preventive Services the independent, nonfederal Task Force on Community Services Guide to Community Preventive Services and the Health Technology Advisory Committee (HTAC) of the Minnesota Health Care Commission (MHCC) health technology evaluations. 

States should enact legislation to provide for. .. safe and effective medication at an affordable price. States should also take measures necessary to ensure for all persons, on a sustained and equal basis, the availability and accessibility of quality goods, services and information for HIV/AIDS. .. treatment..., including antiretroviral and other safe and effective medicines, diagnostics and related technologies for preventive, curative and palliative care of HIV/AIDS and related opportunistic infections and conditions. (UNCHR/UNAIDS 2003)... 

For background information on drugs for the treatment of opportunistic infections in HIV/AIDS, please refer to www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/guidelines... 

Two major panels of experts publish guidelines for the treatment of HIV-infected individuals. Although the recommendations are quite similar, slight differences do exist between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Guidelines2 and the International AIDS Society-USA (IAS-USA) Panel Recommendations.4 The DHHS Guidelines are updated every 6 months and current and archived versions are available online at www.aidsinfo.nih.gov. The IAS-USA Guidelines were last updated in 2006, and in 2004 prior to that revision. Due to the intense research and constant modifications to therapeutic approaches in the treatment of HIV, the majority of the treatment algorithms and recommendations presented herein follow the most up-to-date information found in the DHHS recommendations. 

AIDSTRIALS (AIDS Clinical Trials). The AIDSTRIALS database [80] provides information about AIDS-related studies of experimental treatments conducted under the FDA s investigational new drug (IND) regulations. AIDSTRIALS contains information about clinical trials of agents undergoing evaluation for use against AIDS, HIV infection, and AIDS-related opportunistic diseases such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Detailed information is supplied... 

A related issue is the growing number of AIDS-phobic individuals, who often benefit from empathic, informed reassurance, thus avoiding HIV-antibody testing or the need for more intensive treatment. 

The treatment of patients with AIDS and individuals infected by HIV is continually being modified as new drugs become available and more information is gained about the nature of the AIDS virus. Currently, the pharmacologic management of HIV-infected patients consists of two principal strategies (1) controlling the proliferation and effects of HIV in individuals infected with this virus and (2) treatment and prevention of various opportunistic infections that... 

Information is limited. The difference between the results of the two studies may be because the first was in AIDS patients with Pneumocystis pneumonia and the second was in asymptomatic HIV-positive patients whose drug metabolism may possibly be different. Concurrent use appears to be an effective form of treatment, but be alert for evidence of increased dapsone toxicity (methaemoglobinaemia). 

Data for this review were abstracted from chemical databases compiled and maintained by the Division of AIDS. Information contained in our databases is acquired by surveillance of primary literature sources and consists of published data on compounds which have been evaluated pre-clinically against HIV or certain opportunistic infections associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The databases were established to help members of the Division of AIDS track therapeutic developments in the treatment of AIDS and to serve as an information base available to all researchers. Our HIV database contains entries for over 4(X)0 different chemical entities, including over 800 nucleosides. We recently have established a similar database for compounds which have been evaluated against various AIDS-associated opportunistic infections. The latter database currently contains information on more than 2000 compounds. 

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