Prolonged use of antiretroviral agents has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. However, the long term use of antiretroviral agents can result in adverse metabolic effects, including hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and diabetes. All of these metabolic consequences are risk factors for coronary artery disease and myocardia...

Enfuvirtide is the first in a new class of drugs called fusion inhibitors. It was recently approved in Canada for the treatment of patients with evidence of HIV-1 replication despite ongoing antiretroviral therapy. Current evidence on safety and efficacy is limited to 48-week studies. Two phase III trials found that in treatment-experienced patients failing antiretroviral treatment, the additio...

Although the ever-expanding armamentarium of antiretroviral drugs has significantly decreased the morbidity and mortality due to human immunodeficiency virus infection, patients and clinicians are increasingly faced with the problems of inadequate or toxic response to therapy that may be genetically mediated. Significant evidence now exists that interindividual differences, such as efficacy of ...

BACKGROUND Access to antiretroviral drugs for HIV-1 infection has increased in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during the past few years. Mutations in the HIV-1 genome are often associated with treatment failure as indicated by viral replication and elevated levels of virus in the blood. Mutations conferring resistance to antiretroviral drugs are based on comparing gene sequences with corresponding co...

BACKGROUND The widespread use of antiretroviral agents and the growing occurrence of HIV-1 strains resistant to these drugs have given rise to serious concerns regarding the transmission of resistant viruses to newly infected persons, which may reduce the efficacy of a first-line antiretroviral therapy. METHODOLOGY RNA was extracted from plasma samples of 98 treatment-naïve individuals with a...

The purpose of expanded-access programs (EAPs) for antiretroviral therapy has been to allow patients without alternative treatment options to obtain drugs before formal Food and Drug Administration approval. Given the dramatic changes that have occurred in antiretroviral therapeutic approaches during the past 2 decades, we wish to review the history of antiretroviral EAPs and to propose an upda...

OBJECTIVES Since 2004, the government of Tanzania has been rolling out antiretroviral treatment programs all over the country. However, the capacity of the health system to cope with the rapid scale-up of these programs is a major concern, and problems may result in drug stock-outs that force changes in treatment regimens. This study aims to explore stock-outs of antiretroviral drugs and furthe...

Today HIV-1 infection is recognized as a chronic disease with obligatory lifelong treatment to keep viral titers below detectable levels. The continuous intake of antiretroviral drugs however, leads to severe and even life-threatening side effects, supposedly by the deleterious impact of nucleoside-analogue type compounds on the functioning of the mitochondrial DNA polymerase. For detailed inve...