title: RT-PCR comparative study of viral load levels in the HIV positive population in Puerto Rico before and after protease inhibitor regimen implanted.
abstract: Ponce School of Medicine AIDS Research Program conducted a large scale viral load assessment of Puerto Ricans who are infected by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) during the summer of 1996 through the Roche ACCESS program before general implementation of combination therapy. Since January 1997, it has monitored those HIV-1 patients who are under treatments at most HIV-1 health care clinics, including both public and private. The present study was conducted to evaluate how the new treatment has generally impacted on the HIV-1 disease status of HIV-1 infected population in the eight Immunology Clinics. Assessment was made by consecutively monitoring the changes in HIV-1 viral load profiles of the population from January to September, 1997. A large majority of samples were delivered for viral load assessment without information of their treatment status, and only a small number of samples were identifiable either as baseline or followup. Despite the paucity of individual information, remarkable improvements of HIV-1 (+) population at large were evident. For example, in the summer of 1996 (ACCESS), population median viral load was 51,842; only 9% of the population had viral load less than 500 viral RNA copies/ml plasma and 72% had over 10,000 copies/ml. By July-September, 1997, the population median dropped to 8,679 (83%); 23% were below 500 copies/ml (+156%) and the proportion of patients who had over 10,000 copies/ml was reduced to 48% (-33%). The group of individuals who were positively identified as "follow-up" (i.e., under active treatment) had a median of 37128 copies/ml (-94%); 28% were below 500 copies/ml (+211%) and only 40% had more than 10,000 copies/ml (-44%). It is obvious that the implementation of triple combination therapy by PASET in 1997, has very markedly improve the HIV-1 disease status of HIV-1 (+) population in Puerto Rico.
authors.affiliation: Ponce School of Medicine AIDS Research Program, PR 00732.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tripari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cantisani
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morán
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feliciano
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamura
mesh_terms: D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D019562:Viral Load / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral