New evidence in this week’s BMJ supports the use of up to three antiviral drugs (triple therapy) to treat people with HIV.
Researchers in Birmingham reviewed 54 trials involving over 20,000 patients with HIV infection who had not already received antiviral therapy.
Combinations of up to three drugs were consistently and significantly more effective, but there was inadequate evidence on the effectiveness of quadruple or higher combinations. There was also marked variation, mainly accounted for by the drugs tested and issues of quality, say the authors.
Further work is needed to clarify which triple combination is the most effective and to investigate the effectiveness of quadruple or higher combinations, conclude the authors.