News Briefs
News Briefs
A clinical study has shown interferon/ribavirin combination therapy to be more effective than interferon monotherapy at reducing hepatitis C viral load in HIV- infected persons in the first 12 weeks of treatment. The study also has shown that combination therapy appears to be as safe as monotherapy and does not exacerbate anemia in coinfected patients.
The study, launched under the auspices of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), is the first randomized controlled trial in the United States to compare monotherapy (interferon alfa-2b) with a 2-drug combination therapy (interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin). amfAR presented the results at the First International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Buenos Aires.
The study included 110 coinfected patients from clinical research centers in 16 US cities and Puerto Rico. After 12 weeks of treatment, 23% of patients who received combination therapy had no detectable hepatitis C viral load, while only 5% of patients who received monotherapy had no detectable viral load (P = .016). Anemia was one of the most commonly reported adverse events, though there was no statistically significant difference in incidence of anemia between the 2 study arms.
A clinical study has shown interferon/ribavirin combination therapy to be more effective than interferon monotherapy at reducing hepatitis C viral load in HIV- infected persons in the first 12 weeks of treatment. The study also has shown that combination therapy appears to be as safe as monotherapy and does not exacerbate anemia in coinfected patients.
The study, launched under the auspices of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), is the first randomized controlled trial in the United States to compare monotherapy (interferon alfa-2b) with a 2-drug combination therapy (interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin). amfAR presented the results at the First International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment in Buenos Aires.
The study included 110 coinfected patients from clinical research centers in 16 US cities and Puerto Rico. After 12 weeks of treatment, 23% of patients who received combination therapy had no detectable hepatitis C viral load, while only 5% of patients who received monotherapy had no detectable viral load (P = .016). Anemia was one of the most commonly reported adverse events, though there was no statistically significant difference in incidence of anemia between the 2 study arms.
Source...