health

Study finds HIV drugs ineffective

A study of treatments for the HIV virus being led by a group of researchers at the Gorgas Memorial Institute has revealed disturbing patterns within the infected population.

According to results, between 20 and 30 percent of patients who test positive for the HIV virus develop resistance to the first phase of so-called “cocktail drug” treatments.

As explained by the Sección de Genoma del Gorgas Director Juan Miguel Pascale, this common treatment consists of medicines such as Combivir and Efavirenz, products which, in addition to being effective, are also the cheapest on the market.

The cost of these treatments range between $90 and $100 a month, whereas other drug therapies for more advanced cases can run anywhere from $400 to a $1000 a month.

Pascale said that his two major concerns about this finding deal with the fact that so many patients are being given treatments that have little or no effect, and that the government is wasting money on what might as well be placebo drugs.

“This study can help show the government the other triple-therapy treatment options available,” he said. “It must begin to consider them to avoid wasting money."

Gorgas Institute researchers have also been looking into a project to genotype resistance to the HIV virus, which would attempt to understand how the virus mutates in a patient.

Each of the required gene tests, however, cost around $400, a figure that director of the Programa de VIH/SIDA del Ministerio de Salud Yira Ibarra said was too steep to be absorbed in next year’s budget. Ibarra indicated that she was aware of the situation.