THE correct use of new agents to control the HIV virus should make it possible to convert the deadly infection into a chronic disease, an international AIDS expert told a meeting in Dublin last night.
Dr Joep Lange, from the Netherlands, said the practice of HIV medicine has dramatically changed in the past year with the use of antiretroviral agents.
Several new antiretroviral agents have become available and options to combine them for effective treatment are great, he said. A number of Irish patients are benefiting from this treatment.
HIV is a virus-type known as a retrovirus, and in attempts to control it, a combination of drugs are being used. The combined drug therapy significantly reduces the amount of virus present.
Dr Lange is the director of the recently founded National AIDS Therapy Evaluation Centre, a government sponsored body in the Netherlands. It is responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of clinical trials in the field of HIV infection. His presentation addressed the current status of antiretroviral therapy.
"With correct use of antiretroviral agents it should be possible to convert HIV-infection into a chronic disease. In an experimental setting attempts at viral eradication are even being undertaken," he told the meeting which was chaired by Dr Fiona Mulcahy, genito-urinary physician St James's Hospital, Dublin. The meeting was hosted by Bristol-Myers Squibb which has recently launched a new antiretroviral therapy Zerit. He said that beside the new antiretroviral agents, there is now also the ability to measure the amount of HIV in blood and other tissues.
Dr Karina Butler, a consultant paediatrician and consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin, said there had been tremendous advances in treatment but children were losing out.
"Children are not always in the forefront of people's minds in terms of developing treatment options suitable for use," she said. "We are left facing the infected child. Toddlers don't like to take a single drug once, never mind two or three times a day: additionally it tastes bad. Hassled mothers, often ill themselves, cannot co-ordinate therapeutic schedules."
Treatment of pregnant mothers with HIV can prevent the virus being passed on to the child. She, called for an ante-natal testing programme. "I know the Government believes the levels don't warrant it but HIV in children is now preventable with these new treatments and I would argue strongly for it," Dr Butler said.