Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: When to begin HIV treatment?

Thanks, grandpatb, for posting on this important topic.

>Infectious disease doctors recommended in August that treatment start when the number of CD4 cells drops to 350 per milliliter of blood, up from an earlier standard of 200.<

350 is better than 200, but still not good enough.

>The new study, reported today at an infectious disease meeting in Washington, may spark discussion on raising the standards and could increase the number of people on medication, said John Bartlett, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “A lot of us are pretty convinced that the recommendation is going to 500… We'd be treating an enormously larger number of people than we are now.”<

A much higher CD4 threshold for beginning treatment combined with increased political support for HIV testing (#msg-31419107) will lead to many more US patients on HIV treatment, according to GILD. All drug companies in the HIV arena will benefit.



<font size=3><font color=red> “The efficient-market hypothesis may be
the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated
in any area of human knowledge!”