Study Finds One HIV Drug Combo Better

A study has found one common treatment for HIV more effective than another in people who started with a lot of the virus in their bloodstream. The study was published online December 1 by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study included 797 people who had a very high level of HIV in their bodies. They had not been treated for HIV before. Researchers divided them into four groups. Two groups received the drugs abacavir and lamivudine. The other two were given tenofovir DF and emtricitabine. Depending on the group, they also received other drugs. In the next five years, treatment stopped working for 7% of those in the groups that took tenofovir DF and emtricitabine. The rate was twice as high, 14%, for the groups that took the other two drugs.