Volume 6 Number 9 September 2005

Special Issue: Reports from 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment

This issue of HTB reports from the 3rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment that was held in Rio this summer and includes paediatric studies, strategies for prevention of mother-to-child transmission, the management of treatment experienced patients, a review of new drugs in the pipeline, and an overview of pharmocology and drug-drug interaction studies.

Closer to home, the UK 2005 BHIVA Guidelines are now posted to their website. As a review of the latest evidence-based medicine, this extensively revised edition are essential reading for healthcare providers, advocates, funders and patients.

They constitute management guidelines for a minimum recommended standard of care in the UK. We have included a summary of some of the main new recommendations together with the appropriate web link.

We have also included two recent statements from the European regulatory agency, related to risk of cardiovascular complications, and use of antiretroviral drug on patients who are coinfected with viral hepatitis.

The research commissioned following these regulatory concerns involved a unique collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and independent investigators over many years that is to be commended. Data will continue to be collected at least in the short term regarding cardiovascular risk, although as the indicated in the second EMEA statement, this group will increasingly focus on use of antiretroviral drugs in patients with HIV and hepatitis coinfection.