286: new HIV drug hailed as a 'breakthrough'

Some promising news today in the fight against HIV and AIDS. As today's linked article from The Canberra Times reports, Australian researchers have reported excellent outcomes from the trial of a new HIV drug, raltegravir. The 500 patients involved in the trial had stopped responding to their previous treatments. Raltegravir offered hope as it is an 'integrase inhibitor', a completely new type of drug. As such it has been described as a 'breakthrough' - and certainly the results from Australia are exciting. The new drug has to be used in combination with others, but, when it was, the Australian researchers found it rendered the HIV virus undetectable in 62% of patients. For those with diminishing treatment options, this could be very good news indeed.