When Would You Start Therapy?

A study in the journal Antiviral Therapy shows that HIVers often make a trade-off in deciding when to begin antiretroviral therapy between mortality risk and the potential drug toxicities and pill burden. Researchers polled HIVers as to when they'd prefer to begin antiretroviral therapy if delaying treatment for one year raised three-year mortality risks by up to 10%. Starting treatment to reduce mortality risks ''30% would always begin treatment early, even if mortality risks did not rise by waiting ''25% would always delay treatment, even if mortality risks rose 10% Starting treatment based on CD4-cell counts ''50% would start treatment when CD4-cell levels drop below 350 if waiting raised mortality risks ''40% would delay treatment when CD4-cell counts drop below 200, even if waiting boosted mortality risks by up to 10%