RESEARCH ARTICLE


High Treatment Success Rates When Switching to Once Daily Nevirapine Containing Antiretroviral Therapy



Andrew Benzie1, Brett Marett1, Nicola E Mackie1, Alan Winston*, 1, 2
1 Department of GU and HIV Medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, UK
2 Division of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
1
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 3174
Abstract HTML Views: 1963
PDF Downloads: 676
Total Views/Downloads: 5813
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 1315
Abstract HTML Views: 1032
PDF Downloads: 470
Total Views/Downloads: 2817



Creative Commons License
© Benzie et al.;Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Clinical Trials, Ground Floor Winston Churchill Wing, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Campus, Praed Street, Paddington, London W2 1NY, UK; Tel/Fax: +44 207 886 1603/6123; E-mail: a.winston@imperial.ac.uk


Abstract

Introduction

Two recent studies have highlighted low rates of virological response to once daily nevirapine containing combination antiretroviral therapy (CART) in treatment naïve HIV-1 infected subjects.

Aim

We assessed factors associated with treatment responses in a cohort of HIV-1 infected, therapy naïve individuals, commencing nevirapine CART with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) containing either lamivudine or emtricitabine.

Results

Between January 2002 and 2006, 173 subjects (80 female) met the study inclusion criteria. All subjects initially commenced on twice daily nevirapine with six different NRTI backbones. Mean follow up was 802 days. 49 (28%) subjects switched to once daily nevirapine, 23 (13%) within the first year. After 48 weeks of therapy, HIV RNA was < 50 copies/mL in 154/173 subjects (89%). A trend was observed towards improved virological outcome (HIV RNA < 50 copies/mL) and switching to once daily nevirapine during the first year of therapy (p=0.051).

Conclusion

Whilst awaiting the results of prospective studies assessing once daily nevirapine, our data describe high treatment success rates and good safety responses when switching to once daily nevirapine.