A cocktail of low-cost drugs may protect HIV patients from multiple infections, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
About 20 percent of people begin HIV treatment later than medically advised in poorer nations. This treatment delay makes patients more vulnerable to serious illness, since they have a lower number of critical immune cells left. About 10 percent of these individuals die within the first few weeks of treatment, according to The Guardian.
The drug cocktail examined in the study includes medications to combat tuberculosis, fungal infections and worms, as well as two antibiotics. Among the 1,805 individuals enrolled in the study, 906 received the batch of drugs in addition to standard HIV-prevention treatment. The rest of the participants received only the standard treatment. Within six months, the mortality rate among those who received the standard treatment was 12 percent, compared to 9 percent for patients taking the enhanced treatment.
"Currently, the World Health Organization says you should look for infections and treat them before or as you start treatment with antiretroviral medicines. The problem is that often primary healthcare centers aren't able to do that very easily because diagnostics aren't there, and secondly it causes a delay because you've got to have tests done and come back," Diana Gibb, MD, professor of epidemiology with University College London's medical research council, told The Guardian. "The good thing about this treatment was that you just take the prevention pills at the same time as you start antiretroviral therapy."
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