AIDS Treatment Update

special issue - which HIV drugs f irst?
During this year's Autumn programme of H IV conferences, the key turf-war has been choosing treatment
over which drugs to use when starting anti-H IV therapy for the first time. This is an
issue which predominates every once in a while, often spurred by the anticipated
arrival of new products to the H IV therapy marketplace.
starting with PIs
This occasion is much the same - significant new treatment options have become
available in the US, and are either here or expected soon in the UK and rest of
Europe. Doctors and patients must consider where these new products fit with... i% Istarting with NN I s
existing options, and with evolving treatment issues. When the term 'protease-sparing' satn ihNR~
was first coined two years ago to mean a three drug regimen other than the thenstandard protease inhibitor (P1)-based H AART, it fitted with an emerging consensus
that treatment needed to be easier to tak~e if long-term adherence were to be starting with NRTIs
expected of the majority. Now, newer regimens, some involving old drugs, have
challenged the view that some drug classes are 'easy' and others 'hard'. Similarly,
worries about long-term side-effects can be attributed fairly evenly across classes.

news in brief
In this special issue, we round off the year with a guide to choosing treatment and a
class by class review of the latest information on first-line antiretroviral options.
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