The August 16 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association says, that the addition of a fourth drug, abacavir, did not lower the amount of the virus in patient blood. Earlier studies were contradictory with some for and some against advantages of adding a fourth drug.
Roy Gulick, director of the Cornell University HIV clinical trials unit and associate professor of medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell in New York tells globeandmail.com, "It doesn't look like adding a fourth drug to the very successful three-drug regimen taken today provides any additional benefit.
The August 16 JAMA issue was planned for release to coincide with the AIDS conference; the contents of the issue are devoted entirely to AIDS and AIDS related concerns.
In another study, free antiretroviral therapy programs initiated in Zambia proved to be effective.
JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine DeAngelis spoke at the conference stating that AIDS was now is equivalent in the number of deaths caused by the bubonic plague.
Approximately 25 million people have died of AIDS/HIV in the last 25 years. An estimated 40 million individuals now have the disease. What was once considered a death sentence has now more aptly termed as a chronic disease by many.
