Bastyr University is the only regionally accredited multidisciplinary natural medicine university in the country. The study addresses how health outcomes differ in people using alternative medicine, conventional medicine, or a combination of the two. Participation in the study is limited to completing a questionnaire three times over a one-year period in order to track the health status of the patient. Specific treatments will not be prescribed or recommended. To be eligible, people must be HIV-positive, at least eighteen years old, currently using alternative therapies as a part or all of their treatment program, and able to give informed consent.
All patient information is held in the strictest confidence.
Practitioners who use alternative medicine are urged to become a part of a national network of clinical sites and help recruit their eligible patients to participate in the study. CMV retinitis affects as many as 40 percent of all people with AIDS, often when they have less than one year to live. The panelists recommended that Chiron undertake further studies to determine how the implant might be used with other drugs to treat CMV symptoms throughout the body. They also voiced concerns about a side effect, which caused some patients' retinas to detach from their eyes. The study notes the overwhelming differences between infected groups.