AIDS Drugs May Eliminate Need for Prophylactic Antibiotics

Prior to the advent of cocktails of AIDS drugs, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was one of the leading killers of AIDS victims, and those with AIDS routinely took prophylactic antibiotics to prevent the disease. Two new studies in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, however, show that such prophylaxis is not necessary for those taking the cocktails. Two separate groups discontinued the prophylactic therapy in patients receiving cocktails of drugs. None contracted pneumonia.

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--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II