Sydney, Australia – HIV-infected babies given antiretroviral drugs in the first weeks of life were four times as likely to survive as those left untreated, raising hopes that more young lives can be saved, new research suggests.
Drugs given to infected infants in South Africa – even though they appeared healthy – helped them live longer than babies who started therapy after showing signs of disease, according to early results of a study sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
World Health Organization guidelines now call for medicines to be administered only after signs of disease or a weakening immune system are observed. But the South African study was so promising that its findings were being released to the WHO and other health officials so they could consider modifying the recommendations.
“It’s very good news for young patients and parents,” co-author Dr. Avy Violari of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg told The Associated Press. She was to present the findings today at an international AIDS conference in Sydney.
Every year, about a half-million babies are born infected with HIV worldwide. Their immune systems are not fully developed within the first year, making them more susceptible to the disease.
