It’s the week for New Year resolutions
Many people’s resolutions are focused in health. So if you’ve decided to eat a healthier diet, you’ll find the NAM booklet on Nutrition a good place to start. If you’ve decided to start exercising, you might want to read NAM’s factsheet on this subject, and those who are stopping smoking should look at the factsheet on this subject.
If you have made any resolutions, good luck and very best wishes for 2007.
Anti-HIV Treatment
HIV and TB
Tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest cause of illness and death in people with HIV worldwide and one of the two most common AIDS-defining illnesses in the UK. Even if a person has HIV, TB can be cured, in most cases, with six months of treatment with a combination of special antibiotics.
But there is an increasing worldwide problem with drug-resistant TB. A new international study has shown that 10% of TB cases worldwide now involve drug resistance. The study also found that 1% of new TB cases involve multi-drug resistance (TB that is resistant to the key first-line drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin). Multi-drug resistant TB is harder to treat, involving longer duration of treatment, more drugs, and often, more side-effects. What’s more, people who have multi-drug resistant TB are much more likely to die. Multi-drug resistant TB has increased in prevalence in India, Russia and China, all of which have prowing HIV epidemics.
Even more worryingly, TB is emerging that is resistant to three or more second-line drugs. This is called extensively-drug resistant TB. Doctors behind the drug-resistance study write “all means should be put in place urgently to control these deadly strains.”
A lot of drug-resistant TB has emerged because doctors in some countries did not treat the infection properly. But it can also develop if anti-TB treatment is not taken correctly. Just like HIV medication, it is essential to take all your doses of TB medication at the right time and in the right way. You can find out more about the importance of taking medication properly by reading the factsheet and booklet on adherence.
After starting HIV treatment, many people who have had TB experience a temporary worsening of symptoms associated with TB. This is called an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS).
Because of this, people with weak immune systems should not start HIV treatment and anti-TB therapy at the same time. Normally it is recommended that there should be a gap of at least two months between starting TB treatment and commencing therapy with anti-HIV drugs.