Dual nucleoside analogue treatment in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART): a single-centre cross-sectional survey

Since limited literature exists regarding the outcomes of dual nucleoside a nalogue reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) treatment in the highly acti ve antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era, a cross-sectional survey was carried out in a population of around 1000 HIV-infected patients in a single north ern Italian university hospital, to assess the frequency, background and lo ngterm evolution of anti-HIV treatment conducted with two NRTIs. An appreci able proportion (20.4%) of the 798 HIV-Infected patients currently treated with antiretrovirals at our centre still take a dual NRTI combination, and the great majority of them (68.7%) have a stable disease course (characteri zed by a viral load <3.7 log(10) HIV RNA copies/mL, a maintained CD4+ lymph ocyte count and absence of HIV disease progression after at least 24 months of followup), regardless of the selected regimen, prior antiretroviral the rapy use, and baseline virological and immunological situation. Further stu dies are warranted to establish whether dual NRTI regimens may have residua l indications in the HAART era, and whether the shift to a triple antiretro viral combination is expected to lead to long-term advantages in patients w ith a low risk of disease progression while on dual NRTI treatment.