Better Living Through Drugs

Caregivers have long known that antiretroviral therapy slows HIV disease progression, even reversing some of the immune system damage caused by the disease, but one of the first extended studies of HIV treatment finally shows just how significant an impact long-term treatment delivers. The rate of HIV disease progression to an AIDS diagnosis is slashed by 86% in people taking anti-HIV medications, compared to untreated HIV-positive adults, according to a study of 3,200 Swiss HIV patients who began combination therapy after January 1996. The benefits of treatment also 'increased with time since initiation,' according to Jonathan Sterne of the University of Bristol. The study, published in The Lancet, is important because it is one of the first to examine the impact of antiretroviral therapy over several years, AIDS experts say.