Drug for AIDS Patients’ Vision Safe Taken Orally, Study Says

Ganciclovir, a drug usually given intravenously to AIDS patients to fight sight-destroying infection, is safe and effective when taken orally, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In tests on 123 volunteers in the United States and Canada with the eye infection cytomegalovirus retinitis, a team led by Lawrence Drew of UC San Francisco found that ganciclovir capsules worked almost as well as intravenous treatment and involved fewer complications.

Cytomegalovirus retinitis develops in as many as two out of five AIDS patients. Until now, daily intravenous treatments have been recommended.