A combination of drugs helped cut the risk of death for HIV-infected patients in a Swiss study by two-thirds, according to a report in Friday's British Medical Journal.
The study is the first to conclude that treatment involving a cocktail of drugs, called "antiretroviral combination therapies," is effective for a broad range of HIV-infected people, said Dr. Manuel Battegay of Basel University Clinic, co-leader of the study.More than 5,000 men and women in Switzerland took part in the study from September 1988 to February 1997 at seven Swiss HIV units. The medical journal's report analyzed progression of the virus and death rates.
The findings for 1995-96, the first year the new therapies were used, show a "marked reduction in progression rates," the researchers reported. In addition, the risk of both a first AIDS-related illness and of death were reduced by more than half.
Compared with patients studied between 1988 and 1990, the risk of developing full-blown AIDS was down 73 percent and the risk of death fell by 62 percent.