14 April 2000

Contents

Editorial

• Welcome to HIV Treatment Bulletin (incorporating DrFax)

Treatment alerts

• St John’s Wort: message from Professor A Breckenridge, Chair, Committee on Safety of Medicines.

Conference reports

• 7th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (ROI), January 30-February 2 2000, San Francisco

• Paediatrics: children are not small (or miniature) adults

• HIV-positive women, pregnancy and newborns

• Flu-like symptoms of severe acute HIV infection develop after suspension of HAART

• Non-clade B virus: epidemiology, testing strategies and resistance

Treatment strategies

• French National Drug Agency re-commends use of IL-2 if HAART does not lead to an increase in CD4 count to greater than 200 cells/mm3

PK and drug interactions

• Interactions of St John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) preparations

• Important safety information for people taking St John’s Wort preparations

Guidelines

• Public Health Service (US) releases updated guidelines for treatment of HIV positive pregnant women