Safety and Effectiveness of PEG-Intron in HIV-Infected Patients

The purpose of this study is to see if it is effective to give PEG-Intron (PEG-IFN) to HIV-infected patients who are not doing well with their current anti-HIV drug combination (HAART).

At entry, patients undergo HIV genotypic/phenotypic analysis. Patients continue their current antiretroviral regimen but are randomized to receive one of four doses of PEG-IFN or PEG-IFN placebo administered subcutaneously once per week until results of HIV genotyping/phenotyping are available (approximately 4 weeks). Patients who respond with a 0.5 log or greater decrease in HIV RNA at Week 4 have optimized HAART added to their ongoing PEG-IFN regimen and are followed for 24 weeks in an observational study.