SAVING LIVES

Immediate HIV Treatment a Breakthrough

Finally proven in trial.

U.S. health officials said Wednesday they have halted a clinical trial that gave antiretroviral drugs to HIV patients immediately because the benefits were overwhelming. The trial was stopped more than a year early because those who were immediately treated with drugs saw their chance of dying or suffering an "AIDS-related event" drop by 53 percent. These patients were given drugs as soon as the virus was detected in their blood, which is much earlier than when they would've begun to show symptoms. "Although it may seem self-evident that it is best to treat the victim of a fatal illness promptly," the New York Times writes, "the definitive evidence had been lacking on the benefits to individual patients."