INITIATING ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY IN HIV- SEROPOSITIVE PATIENTS - 2NDSEMESTER 1994 - 2ND SEMESTER 1996

OBJECTIVES: The nature of antiretroviral therapy has radicaly changed these last years. A study nas been conducted on data obtained from the DM12 information system to evaluate changes on treatments, immunity a nd transmission profile of the patient naive to antiretroviral therapy when initiating a therapy. METHODS: DM12 is a national, multicentered database which contains medical, epidemiological and economic informa tion on hospital care for HIV patients. This study, on 18,510 patients followed up in one of the fifty hospitals belonging to the Centers fo r Information and Care of Human Immune Deficiency, was conducted from the second half of 1994 to the second half of 1996. RESULTS: The thera peutic changes seen on the whole sero-positive population are also obs erved on these patients :the proportion of regimen whith only one nucl eoside analogue have decreased from 90.2% in 1994 to 7.5% in 1996. The proportion of treatment with two nucleoside analogues increased from 7.9% to 67.6%. The proportion of two nucleoside analogues with one pro tease inhibitor regimen increased from 1.9% in 1994 to 24.6% at the en d of 1996. A study focused on the second semester of 1996 shows that t he proportion of homo-bisexual patients initiating an antiretroviral t reatment with a three antiretroviral agents combination (29.7%) is gre ater than the one in the IVDU group (20.4%) or in the heterosexual gro up (20.8%). CONCLUSION: These results show that a higher number of pat ient naive to the antiretroviral therapy initiate therapy earlier ther apy initiate therapy earlier with a two or three agents combination pr eferentialy and at a better stage of immunity.