Study Documents Lifesaving Effect of New AIDS Drug Combinations

A new study provides hard evidence that the powerful new AIDS drug cocktails including protease inhibitors are saving lives. Dr. Frank Palella Jr. at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and his colleagues analyzed data on 1,255 patients treated at nine U.S. clinics from 1994 to 1997.

In 1994, they reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, only 25% of patients were getting more than one AIDS drug. In mid-1995, protease inhibitors were introduced, and by mid-1997, the great majority of patients were getting two or more drugs. The death rate remained constant in 1994 and 1995, then fell 70% by June 1997, the study found. The rate of opportunistic infections also dropped 73%.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II