Scientists hail breakthrough on Aids

A major advance in the treatment of people infected with HIV is on the horizon, scientists claim today.

A decade after the discovery of a triple drug cocktail that transformed Aids from a fatal illness to a chronic disease, experts say they are on the verge of a second breakthrough that will bring hope to patients who pose the greatest challenge to treatment.

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Three new drugs are set to revolutionise the treatment of thousands of people in Britain, and ultimately millions more around the world, who are infected with resistant forms of the virus.

At least 60,000 people in the UK are infected with HIV, and latest figures presented at the British HIV Association conference in Edinburgh show that 18 per cent of those in treatment are resistant to at least one anti-retroviral drug. Most of these can be treated with alternative drugs but around 2-3 per cent have multi-drug resistant disease that does not respond to treatment.

Writing in the British Med- ical Journal, Hiroyu Hatano, an infectious disease specialist, and Steven Deeks, an associate professor of medicine, from San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, say:"We will probably witness in the next year a remarkable transformation in the prognosis of a generation of chronically ill, HIV-infected adults." But they warn that the new drugs will not end drug resistance.

The problem of drug-resistant HIV is greatest in developing nations due to poor adherence to treatment and inadequate drug levels. But the new drugs, at £10,000 a year per patient, will be unaffordable there.

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