Nine Month Course of Anti-HIV Medications for People Recently Infected With HIV

Combination antiretroviral therapy has resulted in significantly decreased morbidity and mortality, incidence of opportunistic infections, and hospitalizations in HIV infected people. However, because of long-term toxicities associated with long-term use of antiretrovirals and the persistence of virus in latent reservoirs, it is unclear when it is best to initiate therapy in recently infected individuals. This study compared the virologic outcomes of adults recently infected with HIV who received emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC/TDF), coformulated as Truvada, and lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/RTV), coformulated as Kaletra \[immediate treatment (IT arm)\], with those who received no treatment \[deferred treatment (DT arm)\]. The original study lasted 96 weeks. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups (IT arm vs. DT arm). For the first 36 weeks of the study, IT arm participants received FTC/TDF once daily and LPV/RTV twice daily. Some IT arm participants received a different ART regimen as determined by the participant and study staff, if appropriate. DT arm participants received no treatment for the duration of the study. At Week 37, participants from both arms were offered treatment continuation or initiation until Week 96 if they had a high viral load, low CD4 count, or experienced HIV-related symptoms (Step 2). Study visits occurred at screening, Weeks 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 37, 38, 40, and every 4 weeks thereafter. Clinical assessment and blood collection occurred at all visits. Urine tests occurred at selected visits. Participants were asked to complete an adherence questionnaire at Weeks 12, 24, and 36. Per the recommendations the DSMB review in June 2009, this protocol was terminated as originally written with the exception of those participants in the IT arm in the middle of the first 36 weeks of treatment. Those participants were to continue on treatment until the end of the 36 weeks. At that point treatment decisions were made on best practice guidelines. In addition, the study duration was extended to include a 5 year follow up of participants who did not initiate long-term antiretroviral therapy (Step 3). The study was reviewed by an SMC on December 8, 2010. The SMC recommended the study close to long term follow-up because only very few participants enrolled in this portion of the study. All the results except for the CD4 analysis and time to treatment initiation and deaths were based on the database frozen on July 2, 2009. The results for the CD4 analysis and time to treatment initiation and deaths were based on the database frozen on January 30, 2012.