The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections held in early March in Seattle, Washington, featured over a thousand scientific research presentations primarily focused on HIV, but also TB, hepatitis and other infections. Some of them were very high impact, like the news of the HIV patient who is possibly cured. Most, however, while not ground-breaking, were nevertheless important in revealing new strategies that could improve the management of HIV patients.
I will highlight a few studies that are important regarding the effects of our HIV medicines and some new ways that could possibly improve complications of HIV Infection.
Déjà vu?
This conference presented new data from multiple sources that is raising concern among clinicians. A number of studies and evaluations seem to have identified an issue of significant weight gain occurring in patients starting integrase inhibitors. There have been earlier reports that hinted about this occurring but we are now beginning to see more clearly that this could be problematic.
It seems that patients starting integrase inhibitors experience weight gain and this can