MEDICAL-CARE OF THE AIDS PATIENT

New concepts regarding the medical care of AIDS patients are described in this paper Currently, new pharmacologic agents and their combinati ons with zidovudine are being evaluated in clinical trials to determin e their efficacy in the treatment of HN-infected patients. Nevertheles s, zidovudine is still the mainstay of therapy in AIDS patients. Signi ficant findings regarding monotherapy, combination therapy and immunot herapy for the treatment of HIV-infection are also discussed. There is considerable controversy on the optimal time to initiate therapy with antiretroviral agents. The clinician's decision To initiate antiretro viral therapy should consider the expectations of patients in the cont ext of relative benefits and potential toxicities of therapy. The clin ician must be aware that rigid universal therapy guidelines for all pa tients may not be appropriate. Currently available drugs are only pall iative and the development of innovative therapeutic strategies for ea rly intervention is indispensable on the basis of recent knowledge of the extremely complex pathogenesis of HN infection. At present time, t he medical care of AIDS patients should be individualized and done in the context of the patient-physician relationship for therapeutic and nontherapeutic decisions.