Treating men infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with a drug called delavirdine and other antiretroviral medications cuts the amount of virus in semen and blood by about 90 percent, according to a new study. The virus became undetectable in some volunteers, and even a year after treatment, virus levels in patients remained roughly 50 percent below what they were before treatment, the research showed. Because the AIDS virus doesn't transmit very well, in the United States it is thought that there is about one transmission for every 1,000 exposures, and we might be able to reduce that further. Still, people should never rely on such treatment to avoid contracting or spreading the virus, he cautioned.
Abstinence remains the best way to avoid the illness, and using condoms is second best.
Gilliam directed the investigation while a fellow in infectious diseases at the UNC-CH School of Medicine. Md. A report on the findings appears in the May 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, published today. The study involved collecting semen and blood from 11 HIV-positive men before they were given what's called reverse transcriptase inhibitor therapy with delavirdine, zidovudine and didanosine. Researchers measured virus particles in those specimens and then counted them in new samples eight to 18 weeks after treatment began and again in five patients at least a year later. For comparison, the scientists also measured the AIDS virus in 11 men not receiving delavirdine and the other drugs or whose treatment had not changed for at least two months before the study started.