Are we prescribing HIV drugs properly?

[Guest guest]

the Aids paradigm seems to be slowly falling apart...

 

Sepp

 

 

 

http://notaids.com/en/node/96

 

 

Are we prescribing HIV drugs properly?

 

11 November 2006

In cash-starved regions of the world, deciding who should get

anti-retroviral drugs for HIV is a tough call. Now it seems that one

of the main tools for making that decision may be less reliable than

it appeared.

 

World Health Organization guidelines recommend starting

anti-retroviral drugs when someone's CD4 cell count has fallen below

350 cells per microlitre, an indicator of HIV infection, or for

people with symptoms of AIDS whose CD4 count has dropped to below 200.

 

Brian Williams of the WHO and his colleagues studied HIV-positive and

HIV-negative populations in eight African countries including

Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. They found that between 3

and 5 per cent of HIV-negative people had CD4 counts below 350.

 

What's more, when people with low pre-infection cell counts did

contract HIV, and received anti-retrovirals, they survived for about

nine years - the same as people with high counts (Journal of

Infectious Diseases, vol 194, p 1450).

 

The new findings call into question just how much we understand about

CD4 cells and their interaction with HIV, says Williams. " Generally,

if you have high CD4 counts you can be considered to be doing pretty

well and if you have very low counts, you're in trouble, " says

Williams.

 

But CD4 counts can vary a lot naturally so if you follow the WHO

guidelines to the letter, then some people started on

anti-retrovirals would not even be infected with HIV, he concludes.

 

From issue 2577 of New Scientist magazine, 11 November 2006, page 18

 

 

 

--

 

 

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition.

 

Sepp Hasslberger

 

 

Critical perspective on Health: http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/