HIV patients who also have tuberculosis benefit from starting treatment earlier, according to new research.
People who are HIV-positive and infected with tuberculosis may benefit significantly from beginning HIV treatment earlier, even if it’s only by a few weeks. One study led by Dr. Diane V. Havlir of the University of California, San Francisco, found that starting drug treatment within two weeks of diagnosis – rather than the typical eight weeks – lowered the death rate or progression to more severe HIV by nearly 40 percent.
"This is fabulous news,” said Havlir, as quoted by Health Day. “It's amazing that starting it at two weeks versus eight weeks makes such a difference.”
The combination of both tuberculosis and HIV is common in underdeveloped regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, because the weakened immune system caused by HIV makes it easier for people to get tuberculosis. This is less common in developed areas, such as the West, according to Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Havlir’s study analyzed data from 806 HIV patients who received treatment either two or eight weeks after diagnosis. In very sick patients, only 16 percent receiving earlier HIV treatment got worse or died within 48 weeks, compared to 27 of those receiving the later treatment.
The findings suggest that beginning HIV treatment earlier in severely sick patients with tuberculosis could save lives and reduce transmission, Havlir concluded.
The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
