11 July 2018: vol 19 no 12: DTG and preconception – special report

This HTB leads with a special report by Polly Clayden into the response to the recent safety alerts concerning dolutegravir (DTG) and its use preconception and a related article on balancing the risks and benefits of changing treatment for pregnant women who are currently stable on DTG-based ART.

In addition to summarising the current knowledge and the implications for women, it includes an analysis of serious structural problems for collecting data on the populations that are most likely to need new drugs. This commonly includes women, use during pregnancy and people with TB coinfection.

This topics will be the focus of sessions at the 22nd World AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) which will be held this year in Amsterdam from 23–27 July.

We include a brief summary of the highlighted late-breakers and news about the early programme. HTB will post daily reports during the conference.

Also included in this short pre-conference issue, we include news that the FDC bictegravir/F/TAF received approval in the EU.

We also recommend an excellent review on why U=U in relation to sexual transmission, cannot be taken to cover the risk from breastfeeding, even if viral load is undetectable (in both plasma and breast milk).

An antiretroviral pipeline report is included as a supplement to this issue of HTB.

This compliments the annual Fit For Purpose review that will be published online on 22 July and launched at AIDS 2018.