E-drug: HIV-treatment
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Dutch Health Council warns for HIV-resistance (March 10, 1998)
The Health Council of the Netherlands advised the Dutch Health
Minister today about the medical treatment of people with HIV or AIDS.
The advise is regarding the combination drugs slowing down the
multiplication process of the virus. The Health Council signals
HIV-resistance in multi-drugs and warns for serious problems in
AIDS-therapy, similar to the battle against TB.
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has proven effective in
slowing down AIDS. However, under certain circumstances insensitivity
to the drugs can develop. The risk of insensitivity to HAART increases
with less therapy-compliance and the extent to which the medicines are
absorbed into the blood. Inadequate therapy compliance (due to
side-effects or patient unfriendly prescriptions) results in too little
HIV-braking substances in the blood. This results in HAART-insensitive
virus-substances in the blood.
HIV-resistance is 'contagious'; when another person is infected with
these HAART-insensitive HIV, the person cannot be treated with these
medicines anymore. This can cause spreading of HIV-resistance in the
population.
The Dutch health council states that this new HIV-resistance forms a
serious threat to new treatment possibilities. Therefore HAART must be
applied with extreme discipline, and exclusively in appointed
AIDS-treatment-centres by expert physicians.
This official advice adds another argument to the discussion on
HIV-treatment in developing countries: Therapy-compliance and
disciplined prescribing and treatment are extremely important in
combating the HIV-epidemic, otherwise HIV-resistance develops.
Therefore costs of the total treatment should be taken into account in
calculating the costs of the drug.
The report of the Health Council (IN DUTCH) can be ordered at
order@gr.nl, the title is 'De resistentie bij het gebruik van
HIV-remmende geneesmiddelen', nr. 1997/07.
Mark Raijmakers
Programcoordinator
Wemos Foundation
P.O. Box 1693, 1000 BR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(TEL) +31-20-420.22.22
(FAX) +31-20-620.50.94
(EMA) wemos@tip.nl
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