Is HAART hard on the heart? (Treatment).Multiple-drug regimens known as highly active antiretroviral therapy Noun 1. highly active antiretroviral therapy - a combination of protease inhibitors taken with reverse transcriptase inhibitors; used in treating AIDS and HIV drug cocktail, HAART , or HAART HAART highly active antiretroviral therapy. HAART Highly active antiretroviral therapy, triple combination therapy AIDS The concurrent administration of 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors–eg, AZT and 3TC, and a protease , have been literally a lifesaver for people with AIDS The People With AIDS (PWA) Self-Empowerment Movement was a movement of those diagnosed with AIDS and grew out of San Francisco. The PWA Self-Empowerment Movement believes that those diagnosed as having AIDS should "take charge of their own life, illness, and care, and to minimize . But several commonly used antiretroviral drags, especially those called protease inhibitors, boost fatty acid and cholesterol concentrations in patients' blood. These are known risk factors for heart disease in healthy people. That's led many physicians to suspect that heart trouble may lurk on the horizon for people taking drugs to control their HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. infection. Two large studies presented at the conference come to opposite conclusions about that risk. A study sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. (CDC) in Atlanta followed 5,676 HIV-infected people from 1993 to 2001. Half took protease inhibitors. Only 15 suffered heart attacks, but 13 of those were getting the drugs. Another study looked at 36,766 veterans being treated for HIV across the country. Between 1993 and 2001, overall mortality declined sharply--reflecting the benefits of HAART in fighting off AIDS-related deaths. Hospital admissions and deaths related to cardiovascular disease also declined. The study was conducted by the Veteran's Administration. "It's not possible to say which [study] is right, but it is a critical topic in the years to come," says the CDC's Harold Jaffe. Known benefits of protease inhibitors, he says, continue to outweigh their risks. --D.C. |
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