Boosted Kaletra Regimen Is Seen as Best for Patients Diagnosed Late

An antiretroviral drug regimen including Kaletra, which contains a small dose of Norvir to increase antiviral action, achieves the most rapid suppression of viral load in patients diagnosed with HIV infection when they already have severe immune system damage. A study in the November 1 edition of Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes showed that Kaletra reduced HIV in the blood by 70% during the first 24 hours of treatment in study subjects who began treatment with median CD4-cell counts of 32 and median viral loads of 500,000. By comparison, a regimen containing Crixivan reduced blood-based viral loads by 39%, while a Sustiva-based regimen cut viral loads by 29%. More than one third of the study subjects taking Kaletra had viral loads below 50 copies after 28 days of treatment; none of the patients on the other regimens achieved that viral load level. While all three regimens are effective in controlling HIV replication in the long term, patients with severe immune damage may best benefit from a Kaletra-based regimen to suppress viral loads as rapidly as possible.