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Aidsperspective
AIDS treatment, pathogenesis and other HIV/AIDS related issues
Posts Tagged 'HIV/AIDS'
Covid-19: Can the initial response to HIV teach us anything?
May 3, 2020 sonnabendj	Leave a comment
Many of us who participated in the early response to HIV/AIDS have been asked if any useful lessons were learned that might help us in dealing with Covid 19. Implicit in the way that question was sometimes asked was the assumption that the medical response to AIDS was exemplary, a contention I most certainly do not agree with. Instead and more to the point, the question might have been: Can we avoid repeating the mistakes made in the medical response to HIV/AIDS?
The mistakes that were then made, both with respect to steps that were taken and those that were not taken were numerous and easily documented. As examples, they include the failure to make recommendations and pursue studies on the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections, most strikingly the failure to provide guidance on the prevention of pneumocystis pneumonia until 1989, when the means to do this had been known even before 1981; the very inappropriate use of interferon to treat people with AIDS when it was already present in patients and in large quantities, and when evidence already existed that interferon could play a role in pathogenesis; the failure to respond to the movement of the epidemic into African American communities, that was happening in plain sight as early as the late 1980s. There are many more examples.
It's difficult to see where responsibility for this dismal response lies. Medical scientists who could see these failings also remained largely silent, or perhaps were not successful in advancing their criticisms.
Should we not try to understand how the indifferent federal medical response to AIDS was able to continue?
How is a medical leadership established in times of crisis? How should it be established, keeping in mind the wellbeing of the public as its goal, safe as possible from political influence?
Sadly, it's unlikely that this question will ever be addressed let alone answered. With the increasing privatisation of public services over the past 40-50 years there is now almost nothing left to defend the public interest.
Whatever goes into the establishment of a medical leadership in times of crisis, in the case of HIV/AIDS, it failed miserably. Can we trust that it will not fail us today?
Unlike the mediocre medical response to HIV/AIDS, the scientific response was spectacularly successful, resulting in major advances in virology and molecular cell biology with implications well beyond HIV/AIDS. The same appears to be true of the scientific response to Covid 19. Maybe virologists, immunologists and molecular cell biologists have performed so much better than the doctors partly because they are to a greater extent, shielded from political influence.
There has been much recent publicity reassuring us that we are in good hands with Dr Fauci leading the medical response. Maybe this is indeed a good thing, but in extoling his virtues, one can't help but note that the less than lustrous performance of the medical response to HIV/AIDS under his leadership has somehow been transformed into a triumph. We should not be taken in by this attempt to obscure a less than exemplary past.
We have to admit to what went wrong as a first step to getting it right.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: African American, AIDS, Covid-19, HIV, HIV/AIDS, Joseph Sonnabend
The Cost of Truvada Pre-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP
August 17, 2011 sonnabendj	1 comment
In my last post I wrote about the very small reduction in the absolute risk of HIV infection in the iPrEx trial among those taking Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis.
The 44% reduction in relative risk conferred by Truvada was the only efficacy measurement explicitly presented by the investigators. That the absolute risk reduction was only 2.3% was not mentioned in the various presentations.
I suspect that many reading press reports of this so called breakthrough were unaware that in fact, the actual risk to people taking Truvada was 2.8%. (36 infections in 1251 participants). True, this is less than the 5.1% risk to those on placebo, but by very little. Certainly not enough to justify the bewildering acclaim given to the iPrEx trial results.
Failing to clearly state the absolute risk reduction of an intervention is something we have come to expect from salesmen to inflate the efficacy of a product, but not from clinical researchers. Large reductions in relative risk can be associated with minute reductions in absolute risk when the events prevented are low to begin with.
Another important reason why absolute risk reduction should be stated in a report is that this allows one to calculate the number of people who need to be treated to prevent one event, in this case, one HIV infection.
Although the iPrEx investigators did not explicitly provide these numbers, they can be worked out from data presented, as I did in my last post and was also done in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine of April 7, 2011 in response to the iPrEx trial report, where the authors report that 44 people need to be treated to prevent one infection (I got 45).
They then went on to calculate that it would cost $400,000 a year to prevent a single infection.
This figure does not even include the cost of the necessary monitoring for infection. In another letter, it was suggested that such monitoring be done monthly to prevent the emergence of resistant virus by detecting infection early.
From Sean Strub's calculations (in his comment to my post on the POZ magazine website) which included doctor's visits and tests, the annual cost to prevent a single infection would be about $500.000.
These figures are based on drug costs in the US.
Truvada PreP not only does not work well enough it will cost a half million dollars a year to prevent a single infection.
Maybe this is indeed a "game changer" but not in the sense intended by the triumphalist reports coming from the recent Rome AIDS conference.
There definitely seems to be a perception that PrEP is a viable prevention option for everybody; there even have been calls for its general implementation. These cost estimates alone would make it unfeasible as a public health measure but there are additional reasons, importantly its relatively low efficacy.
PrEP is a reasonable option for only a very small number of individuals at high risk for infection who are able to be regularly checked for infection. I believe there is no disagreement about this; the controversy is only about its general use.
Implementation of PrEP on a wide scale will almost certainly result in an increase in new infections. It's not only adherence to the drug regimen that will not be maintained by all. Adherence to a schedule of regular testing for infection cannot be relied on. Facilities for performing the needed tests may not even always be available.
The way PrEP has been promoted has probably already damaged targeted prevention education programs with support for continued condom use, an activity already in great need of support.
Drugs for prevention are paid for from a different budget than prevention education programs, and health departments already under budgetary constraints may feel that prevention needs can now be paid for by those entities that pay for drugs, private insurers or Medicaid/Medicare.
The amount of almost uniformly uncritical publicity given to PrEP is completely out of proportion to its utility. It's a hugely expensive and very poorly effective prevention intervention, of use to only a very small number of individuals, and its misleading promotion has probably already damaged prevention education programs.
Considerable resources must have been devoted to publicize and promote PrEP over many years, in a way that has not taken care to reinforce prevention education with support for continued condom use. One can only wonder why.
Drs Dong Heun Lee, M.D. and Ole Vielemeyer, M.D of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia are the authors cited.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: absolute risk reuction, HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS, Pre exposure prophylaxis, PrEP, relative risk reduction, Truvada
Pre-exposure prophylaxis with Truvada just does not work nearly well enough.
August 6, 2011 sonnabendj	2 comments
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection with Truvada is not sufficiently effective
There is a similar
post on the POZ magazine website.
PrEP is a prophylactic intervention where uninfected people take anti HIV medications before sexual intercourse to prevent becoming infected with HIV. The use of a vaginal gel containing an anti HIV drug has also been tested.
The results of several trials of PrEP have been reported in the past year, all but one hailed as huge successes, with reported efficacies of up to 90% among those adhering to the treatment regimen.
The efficacy of PrEP in preventing HIV infection was so great that this intervention has been trumpeted as signalling a revolution in HIV prevention. A new era has opened up we are told; PrEP is a "game changer".
With such enthusiastic coverage it may come as a surprise that none of the reports explicitly told us what the actual efficacies of the interventions were in preventing HIV infection, perhaps because they were so low as I'll describe.
Maybe what's even more startling is that this omission seems to have gone completely unnoticed, at least in the universally jubilant press reports and equally enthusiastic press releases from AIDS advocacy organizations.
How has this been possible?
The reason is that the results have been reported as reductions in relative risk only. This tells you nothing about actual risk reduction. What is reported is a percentage reduction in risk from a number that was never clearly stated. For example in the iPrEx trial of PrEP among men who have sex with men, the drug, Truvada, was reported to reduce the risk of infection by 44%. But 44% of what? We were not explicitly told, although it's possible to calculate what it is.
In fact we can calculate that the absolute risk reduction conferred by Truvada is a measly 2.3%, a number nowhere to found in the trial report.
The relative risk reduction may have been 44%, but this translates into only an actual 2.3% reduction in absolute risk, as is shown below.
Reporting relative risk reduction only is the oldest trick in the book to exaggerate the effects of an intervention, used by salesmen, but apparently also by clinical researchers.
What makes the unquestioning acceptance of these reports of relative risk reductions achieved by PrEP even more remarkable is that there is a tremendous amount of material explaining the difference between relative and absolute risk reduction. Just type the words "relative risk absolute risk" into the Google search box.
Relative risk reduction tells you the percentage reduction in risk in the treated group compared to that in the group receiving placebo, or how much lower the risk with the intervention is relative to the risk to begin with.
If you are not clearly told what the risk is to begin with, then you can't tell what the actual reduction in risk is when taking the intervention; all you know is how much lower it is than a number that's not clearly presented to you.
Although not included in the iPrEx trial report there is information that allows one to calculate the absolute risk reduction conferred by Truvada. To do this we need to know what the risk of infection is to begin with.
This is the number of infections occurring in the placebo group over the time period of the study.
64 out of 1248 people in the placebo group were infected, which is 5.1%, or 0.051 in 1. (since then there have been additional infections reported at the Rome AIDS conference, reflecting an increase in the number of infections over a longer time period).
In the group receiving Truvada 2.8% of 1251 people were infected.
The absolute risk reduction conferred by Truvada is simply 5.1 minus 2.8 which is 2.3.
A 2.3% reduction in absolute risk conferred by Truvada is the more accurate measure of its efficacy. Hardly something to celebrate.
A 44% reduction in relative risk sounds much better, although far from spectacular,but unfortunately this number tells you nothing about actual risk reduction.
Relative risk reduction is calculated as follows:
It is the number of events in the treatment group subtracted from the number of events in the placebo group divided by the number of events in the placebo group.
On its own, relative risk reduction is not a helpful number.
Of much greater help to a person considering Truvada PrEP is knowledge of the actual risk while taking Truvada (over the period of the study, a median of 1.2 years).
That number is 2.8%.
Knowing the absolute risk reduction allows one to calculate another important measure. This is the number of people who need to be treated to avoid one infection (NNT).
From information contained in the trial report 45 people need to be treated to prevent one infection. I did not notice this number in the trial report nor was the absolute risk reduction
of 2.3% reported. NNT is a useful number as it allows one to estimate what it would cost to prevent a single infection with Truvada.
The cost of the drug is the least of it. A person taking Truvada PrEP needs to be monitored at regular intervals for toxicity and importantly, for infection, in order to avoid the inevitable emergence of resistant viruses as a result of sub optimal treatment.
If Prep is implemented on a large scale which some AIDS advocates seem to be calling for, but is unlikely to happen, then there may well be increases in new infections with viruses resistant to the drugs in Truvada in men who have sex with men, in IV drug users and in African populations.
PrEP is not a success, at least not with Truvada.
However such a failure was transformed into a triumph, part of the explanation is the use of relative risk reduction numbers with care taken to remain silent on absolute risk reduction.
Despite all the literature available to help people tell the difference between absolute and relative risk reduction, this evidently was a resource not used by those cheering along this ineffective intervention.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: HIV, HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS, Pre exposure prophylaxis, PrEP, Truvada
The AZT trial that led to FDA approval
March 27, 2011 sonnabendj	1 comment
I'm moving some posts from aidsperspective.net/blog as there have been difficulties accessing that blog. This was originally posted there on January 28th 2011., with a similar but shorter article on my POZ blog.
The clinical trial that led to the approval of AZT for the treatment of AIDS in 1987 is a landmark event, not only in the field of HIV medicine but I believe it had a major impact on the drug regulatory process that has had effects in all fields of clinical medicine.
The trial reported in the New England Journal of medicine, had produced a dramatic result (1). Before the planned 24 week duration of the study, after a mean period of participation of about 120 days, nineteen participants receiving placebo had died while there was only a single death among those receiving AZT. This appeared to be a momentous breakthrough and accordingly there was no restraint at all in reporting the result; prominent researchers triumphantly proclaimed the drug to be "a ray of hope" and "a light at the end of the tunnel". Because of this dramatic effect, the placebo arm of the study was discontinued and all participants offered 1500mg of AZT daily.
I was treating many HIV infected individuals in 1987 when the drug was approved for the treatment of advanced AIDS. I was puzzled by the results of the trial quite simply because those patients of mine who resembled trial participants would not have died in the period before the placebo arm was terminated. Many patients enrolled in the trial had experienced an episode of pneumocystis pneumonia within four months of participation. My patients and those of other experienced physicians were unlikely to die within four months of an episode of this type of pneumonia.
This means that if my patients had enrolled in the trial it's probable that there would have been no deaths at all by the time the placebo arm was discontinued and thus an apparent dramatic effect of AZT on mortality would not have been seen.
There had to be an explanation for the discrepancy between the outcome of my patients (and those of other experienced physicians) and individuals participating in the trial; I was confident that an academic clinical researcher would sort this out.
But no explanation was forthcoming.
I was then able to obtain a copy of the application submitted to the FDA by Burroughs Wellcome, (the NDA) and tried to understand the discrepancy myself.
I reviewed the report as a primary care provider to people with AIDS, and thus challenged very aggressively, both by my colleagues and by many patient advocates, to prescribe AZT. I also reviewed the report as a clinical researcher who had designed and implemented clinical trial protocols.
This is the report I wrote after reviewing the NDA. (1)
Essentially it makes the point that patient management strategies were the most significant factor influencing mortality, at least in the short term, and it could not be excluded that differences in the ways patients were managed in the trial, were to a greater or lesser extent, responsible for survival differences. Patient management in this context refers to all the measures available, before the introduction of specific antiviral therapy, to care for individuals susceptible to infections and malignancies associated with impaired cell mediated immunity. For example, the speed with which a potentially fatal opportunistic infection is suspected and diagnosed and efficiently treated can make the difference between life and death. Much experience in the treatment of immunocompromised individuals had been gained before the AIDS epidemic, particularly in the field of renal transplantation, but also in other conditions.
The AZT trial took place in 12 centers across the country. There was no uniform approach to patient management during the trial; each of the 12 medical centers approached the most important determinant of life and death in the short term, independently.
I will return to the implications of this lack of uniformity in patient management strategies.
It may seem surprising today that so little attention was paid to developing methods for the optimal day to day care of patients with AIDS, but at the time there was a pervasive defeatist attitude concerning treatment. All too commonly it was felt that nothing could be done to halt the inevitable progression of the disease to its fatal end.
I'm not sure that it's even possible to adequately describe the terror and desperation felt in the early 1980s. At that time doctors on the front lines were trying to do what they could for their patients but had received little help from experts at academic medical centers and virtually none at all from Government scientists, although by 1981 when the first AIDS cases were reported, diseases of the immunocompromised host had already become a distinct medical subspecialty.
But by 1986 nothing of any use regarding treatments had come from the Public Health Service. For example, people with AIDS had to wait until 1989 for the CDC to issue guidelines for the prevention of pneumocystis pneumonia, the most frequent cause of death among them, while this type of pneumonia had often been routinely prevented in many other individuals who were also at risk because they were recipients of kidney transplants, or were children with leukemia. The means to prevent pneumocystis pneumonia had been published in 1977.
Some community doctors were not waiting for recommendations from government scientists or from their colleagues in academic medical centers, and were learning how to care for their patients. I and several colleagues were preventing pneumocystis pneumonia among our patients for many years before the Public Health Service got around to making their recommendations.
Those who had taken on the medical leadership of the epidemic were telling us in their silence that there was nothing much we could do – we just had to wait for a drug.
Then, after six years of silence regarding treatments Government scientists at last told us that help was on the way. Dr Samuel Broder who was head of the National Cancer Institute appeared on television shows trumpeting the benefits of a drug he called Compound S. I well remember a TV show where he appeared with an AIDS patient who enthusiastically attested to the benefit he had received from the drug, presumably from 1.5G of AZT daily.
A note about patient management strategies:
There really was a lot that we were able to do for our patients before the advent of specific antiviral therapy. After all, most deaths were caused by opportunistic infections, and we certainly could do a great deal to prevent and treat many of them.
Without much guidance some doctors with large practices were able to develop structured programs of patient care. These included the prevention of opportunistic infections when possible, the determination of susceptibility to some, and their early diagnosis and aggressive treatment.
All too often symptoms, particularly diarrhea, fever, weight loss, and anemia were simply attributed to AIDS and not investigated. In fact, such symptoms could frequently be ameliorated if their causes were aggressively sought. More often than not they were caused by treatable conditions. So, patient management strategies included aggressively trying to establish the causes of such symptoms and treating them.
It was the experts who in fact were more likely to attribute them to AIDS and therefore consider them to be untreatable
The provision of general support, including attention to nutrition and mental health issues are parts of patient management.
All of this is pretty labour intensive doctoring, but these measures were able to prolong the lives of our patients.
Needless to say, it was community doctors who had to develop such strategies without much help from the experts. I suppose one has to conclude that the government medical leadership of the response to the epidemic, unlike community doctors dealing with it, must have felt that nothing could be done for people with AIDS, that the only hope to be found was in a new drug.
Returning to the original AZT trial:
If in the short term patient management strategies can make the difference between life and death is there any reason to consider that such strategies may have differed in those receiving placebo or AZT?
The reason why randomized placebo controlled clinical trials are blinded, (so that neither investigator nor participant knows who is receiving placebo or active drug) is to minimize bias. Bias can influence the outcome that might incorrectly be attributed to a drug effect. But it's impossible to blind a trial using AZT. The drug causes changes in routine blood counts that investigators need to see. Therefore we must conclude that investigators could know who was receiving AZT or placebo. The FDA reviewer was aware of this.
If patient management is the most important determinant of mortality in the short term, could bias have influenced the ways patients were managed?
Unfortunately, because this was essentially an unblinded trial, the answer is yes.
Patients known to be taking AZT or placebo might have unintentionally been treated differently, with either greater or lesser care, when the investigator was also the treating physician. AZT may therefore have been even more effective than claimed or may have been worse.
In some centers there would have been instances where the participant also had a personal physician. There was no analysis of trial outcomes based on this difference. Of course from what I have written, I would expect that mortality was probably confined to those participants who did not have a personal physician, but were treated by the study doctor.
But who knows? Information must still be available regarding mortality at different study centers, and in relation to whether the participant was treated by the study doctor or had a personal physician.
Dr Fischl was the principal investigator of the trial but I don't know if she and her team at the University of Miami were the treating physicians as well as the trial investigators.
Incidentally this also brings up the important question of the propriety of an individual serving as both investigator and treating physician. I believe these two roles are often incompatible; that there can be an insuperable conflict of interest that should preclude an individual from functioning in these two roles concurrently. I have served in both capacities but in most instances, not simultaneously.
The survival benefit in the trial attributed to AZT may therefore, to a greater or lesser extent have been due to differences in how placebo or AZT recipients were managed. All we can say is that the question remains, not that this was in fact the case.
The problems resulting from unblinding were clearly acknowledged by the FDA reviewer but not by the study investigators. Around the time of the trial report I took part in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation telephone interview. When I tried to bring up the issue of bias I was cut short by a NIH official who said this was too technical a detail for the audience!
Very unfortunately, the most vocal of the critics of the AZT trial included some individuals who believed that HIV could not cause AIDS. Their strident criticisms were unhelpful; it was evident that none of these critics had any experience in clinical trial methodology.
It was immensely disappointing to find that many of the problems in the trial were identified by Ellen Cooper, the FDA reviewer, yet the drug was still approved at a dosage that proved to be so toxic that another trial compared a similar dose with half that dose. This exercise resulted in excess deaths among those taking the higher dose. (A randomized controlled trial of a reduced daily dose of zidovudine in patients with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Margaret A Fischl et al. NEJM 1990: 323:1009-14).
Among the many bizarre aspects surrounding the introduction of AZT was the claim that the excess deaths in those receiving the higher dose were due to AIDS – that in the case of AZT, less is better – the explanation given for the superiority of the low dose compared to the high dose was that the lower dose allowed people to remain on the drug for longer – not even a hint that the higher dose contributed to the increased mortality. Here is the representation of the mortality differences between the two dosages:
It's worth reproducing the disingenuous words in which this is stated.
"The findings in this study indicate that a lower daily dose of zidovudine is at least as effective ………as the initially tested dose of 1500mg per day and is less toxic" "Moreover low dose therapy was associated with a better survival rate" "The reason for this better interim survival is not certain, but is most likely related to the greater likelihood that continuous antiviral therapy can be maintained with lower doses of zidovudine"
If ever evidence was needed that AZT – at the initial recommended dose of 1500mg daily probably caused an excess mortality – the figure above provides it, despite the disingenuous claims of the authors that the deaths were due to AIDS. A rational response would have been to work out the minimum effective dose. Why stop at 600mg a day? 300mg a day is probably just as good. It is the dose I prescribed with no evidence that 300mg AZT daily was associated with a worse outcome. As described in another article it is likely that endogenous interferon plays a role in pathogenesis, and AZT promptly removes it from the circulation
That the possibility that more people on the higher dose died from AZT toxicity is not even mentioned in the above report is a sad indication of what has become of the discussion of results section in a scientific paper, at least in the field of AIDS. Traditionally all reasonable possibilities are discussed, even to be dismissed, but not in this paper.
The publicity following the approval of AZT was huge. Doctors received a video where AZT was billed as "A ray of hope". I recall white coated doctors speaking about the "light at the end of the tunnel".
The dosage schedule was absurd. There was no scientific basis at all for four hourly dosing. AZT was to be taken even at night, and patients were given beepers to remind them to take their medicine exactly at the appointed time. AZT is not the compound that blocks HIV replication. It is changed into the active compound within the cell by the addition of phosphate, and so blood levels tell you nothing about the levels of the active form in the cell. It is also a little gruesome – because as it turned out adherence to this difficult ritual was associated with great toxicity, and I can imagine that sometimes the manifestations of this toxicity would be attributed to AIDS and patients encouraged to still keep their beeper going and continue to take AZT. At first the drug was only available if patients met certain criteria, and I know colleagues, devoted to their patients, who forged the papers to enable their patients to get the huge dose of AZT. All on the basis of an approval based on a terribly flawed trial.
Of course the need for some therapy was quite desperate and one must wonder if this desperation lowered the threshold of what was deemed to be acceptable, so that there was perhaps less scrutiny of the trial and the failures of AZT at the dose used – until of course toxicity forced a reconsideration of the dosage.
The approval of AZT also set an important precedent that seemed to go unnoticed at the time, and indeed has escaped comment subsequently.
AZT was the first drug of its kind to be approved for lifelong human use.
The drug is an analogue of thymidine which is a normal building block of DNA. It is incorporated, instead of thymidine, into DNA during its synthesis, and then immediately stops further DNA chain elongation because nothing can be added to it.
The use of such analogues able to disrupt DNA synthesis was considered to be perilous when I first dealt with them in the 1960s. I had used them in the virology laboratory in experiments conducted in vitro, and they were handled with caution, as potentially hazardous substances.
In clinical practice, apart from acyclovir which is a similar drug, but in a special category, such analogues were used systemically in malignancies and some viral infections – such as herpes encephalitis or neonatal herpes, but only for short periods. Acyclovir is in a different category as it can only be used by the herpes virus enzymes, and has no effect in cells not infected with herpes viruses. The idea of a possibly lifelong exposure to a DNA chain terminating compound – or even an analogue that is incorporated into DNA that continues to be synthesized, was I believe a novel concept at that time. To emphasize, what was novel was not the use of such compounds, but a life time exposure to them. . So, I was somewhat concerned at the very idea of this approach, and also found it strange that colleagues were mostly silent on this issue. These analogues need to undergo changes in the cell, and are added to the growing DNA chain by enzymes, either those that belong to the cell, or enzymes that are specific to the virus, such as the reverse transcriptase of HIV. It was hoped that AZT, which is turned into its active form by cellular enzymes, would be preferentially used by the viral rather than the cell enzymes that synthesize DNA, and therefore not terminate cellular DNA synthesis; there was some evidence to support this. HIV's reverse transcriptase adds AZT to the viral DNA chain, while cellular enzymes add it to cellular DNA. Cell DNA is found in two different sites. In the nucleus it is the DNA that constitutes our genome – that is all the information that determines our inherited characteristics. DNA is also found in cellular structures called mitochondria which are the source of the energy needed by the cell. Two different enzymes are needed to make DNA in each situation. While there was comforting evidence that AZT much preferred the viral reverse transcriptase to the enzyme that makes our genomic DNA, this preference was less evident in the case of the enzyme that makes mitochondrial DNA. In fact much of the toxicity of AZT is a result of its effect on mitochondrial DNA synthesis.
I never prescribed AZT when it was first approved, and when I did it was at a dose of 300mg a day. Because I was one of the few physicians around 1987 who did not prescribe AZT I attracted patients who were reluctant to take it and whose physicians were nor supportive of this choice. I also received severe criticism for my position
This original AZT trial did however clearly demonstrate to me how important patient management strategies were in the treatment of AIDS, particularly in the days before the more potent antiviral drugs became available.
The New England Journal of medicine, which reported the original trial, rejected my review. I sent copies to all the clinicians who were prominent in the field – as well as to several patient advocates. There was not a single response – not even to reject the points I made. Just total silence. Realizing the difficulty in publishing independent material we – myself and mostly Michael Callen , decided to publish an independent journal. We called it AIDS Forum. Michael was the editor, and it lasted for three issues.
One last comment on the baneful effects of this trial: While it was not responsible for the undue influence industry has on medical practice, this trial probably provided the greatest impetus towards the sad situation we are in today. It is possible that in the field of HIV medicine, industry had its greatest opportunity to establish a firm hold on many different ways to influence practice. These include not only marketing strategies, but influence on guidelines committees, support of continuing medical education, the support of medical conferences and influence on reports of their proceedings, as well as the invention of the Key Opinion leader or KOL, to provide information to physicians. "Key Opinion Leader" is not the only absurd designation in this field. We also have "Thought Leader". Needless to say these distinctions are not conferred by any academic institution; I would assume that the marketing departments of pharmaceutical companies are responsible for choosing who deserve these titles.
N Engl J Med 1987; 317:185-191July 23, 1987
Categories: G: Miscellaneous Tags: AIDS, antiretroviral, AZT, Clinical trials, HIV, HIV treatment interruption, HIV/AIDS, Interferon, retrovir, Zidovudine
iPrEx trial results of Pre exposure prophylaxis – PrEP ,
December 13, 2010 sonnabendj	Leave a comment
A very similar article has been posted at the aidsperspective site.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is an HIV prevention intervention in which anti-HIV drugs are taken to prevent infection. A safe, effective and affordable drug that could achieve this would be a powerful prevention intervention even possibly capable of halting the spread of the epidemic.
Last week we were told the results of the iPrEx trial that tested the efficacy of PrEP with Truvada, a combination of two anti-HIV drugs, in reducing new HIV infections among a group of men who have sex with men considered to be at high risk for HIV infection.
The announcement of the results was greeted with almost universal jubilation.
"That's huge," said a prominent AIDS researcher, "That says it all for me."
"Today marks a major step forward in our quest to combat HIV among MSM
"This discovery alters the HIV prevention landscape forever,"
"….. the new data "represents the most promising development in HIV/AIDS since the introduction of triple combination drug therapy in 1996."
"This is a game-changing trial result,"
Science magazine reported that..
"The researchers applauded and some even cried when they heard the bottom line"; "I have not cried this hard in years" – said one researcher.
These exultant cheers are usually reserved for the most momentous of breakthroughs.
Demonstrating that a drug could be safe and effective in preventing infection would indeed be a momentous breakthrough as already noted.
But the iPrEx results, far from representing such a breakthrough, indicated that PrEP, at least with Truvada, together with counselling and provision of condoms, reduced new HIV infections among men who have sex with men only modestly. It's unlikely that the 44% reduction in new infections that was seen is of sufficient magnitude to make PrEP with Truvada viable as a public health prevention intervention. Moreover, as will be described there are significant safety concerns, a demonstrated danger of the emergence of drug resistant HIV, and the drug is far from affordable.
A 44% reduction in new infections is not huge; even those extolling the trial results would agree (at least I think they would, but who knows considering the over-the-top responses).
But what is most troubling is that the researchers have squeezed an efficacy of Truvada of over 90% by a questionable statistical sleight of hand, an improper use of sub-group analysis, a technique of data dredging that has been soundly discredited. I'll return to this.
This has resulted in headlines such as "PrEP works – if you take your pills", I don't know if this will persuade some people to abandon condoms and religiously take their pills. Unfortunately, as will be explained, the type of subgroup analysis that apparently allowed investigators and commentators to confidently claim a greater efficacy of PrEP is not reliable. Maybe consistent use of Truvada will reduce new infections by over 90%. Maybe not.
For the moment staying with the ability to reduce new infections by 44%: As a public health intervention to be used on a wide scale, this degree if efficacy is just not good enough to justify using Truvada to prevent a life threatening infection. Even if the risk of infection is low this must be balanced against the gravity of the infection. About 3% of participants in the Truvada arm of the trial became infected as opposed to about 5% among those receiving placebo.
Perhaps it's on this issue that I'm at odds with the huge acclaim given to the trial results. Maybe the prevailing view is that a 44% reduction in new infections is indeed good enough; some commentators are even discussing implementation.
PreP proponents like to compare it to malaria prophylaxis. If the efficacy of malaria prophylaxis were of the same order as that of Truvada in relation to HIV, I suspect many people might think twice before visiting an area where there was a risk of malaria.
Let's take a closer look at the trial results, particularly the claimed greater degree of efficacy in compliant participants reported in the New England Journal of medicine.
I have commented briefly on this in my blog on the POZ magazine website.
The medication used in the trial, Truvada, is a combination of two anti-HIV drugs, FTC and tenofovir. It was compared with placebo in over 2000 men who have sex with men, considered to be at high risk for HIV infection.
The 44% reduction in new infections was achieved in conjunction with counselling, provision of condoms and monthly tests to monitor for infection.
This is not a good enough performance to justify widespread use of Truvada to protect against infection. The investigators then looked at blood and tissue levels of the drugs in people who became infected and those who did not. They found that those who remained uninfected had detectable drug levels while those who became infected did not.
They incautiously trumpeted this result as proving that Truvada works well if the pills are taken consistently – stating that in those who took their pills more consistently the relative risk reduction was well over 90%.
On the surface this sounds good. Almost all the commentators thought so.
However looking at the results in a sub-group of participants can be misleading. Most particularly in a sub-group that is defined after randomization; who would or would not comply with treatment could not have been known. The problems with subgroup analyses will be clearer after a short account of intention to treat analysis.
Intention to treat analysis is the most reliable way to analyse clinical trial data. In such an analysis participants are analysed in the group to which they were randomized, irrespective of whether they dropped out, or didn't adhere to the treatment or strayed from the protocol in other ways. This seems counter-intuitive, but there are sound reasons why intention to treat is regarded as the best way to analyse trial data, among them that it more reliably reflects what happens in real life, rather than in a clinical trial. For example, one reason why pills may not work is because they are not taken. If they are not taken in a trial we have to be concerned that they may not be taken in real life. Take a look at this excellent explanation of intention to treat: Making sense of intention to treat.
As noted, the trial investigators made a lot of the sub-group analysis showing greater efficacy in those who took Truvada pills as measured by finding the drugs in blood and tissue samples.
This is surprising as the pitfalls inherent in such post-hoc sub-group analyses have been recognized for years. Commentators, some of whom are clinical researchers, in their over-the-top exultation at the results of the analysis in those compliant with Truvada may have forgotten about the treachery inherent in sub group analysis. A few commentators give the problem only passing acknowledgement.
This is a classic paper on sub group analysis:
Yusuf S, Wittes J, Probstfield J, Tyroler HA: Analysis and interpretation of treatment effects in subgroups of patients in randomized clinical trials.
Journal of the American Medical Association 1991 , 266:93-98
This is from that paper:
"Analysis of improper subgroups, though seductive, can be extremely misleading, because a particular treatment effect may influence classification to the subgroup. Thus, an apparent subgroup effect may not be a true effect of treatment but rather the result of inherent characteristics of patients that led to a particular response or to the development of side effects".
In iPrEx the subgroups were categorized by events that happened after randomization, so the adherent group is an "improper" subgroup. "Subgroups of clinical trial subjects identified by baseline characteristics … is a proper subgroup while a subgroup determined by post randomization events or measures is an improper subgroup".
In actuality the attention given to the subgroup that had blood and tissue drug levels is an example of the treachery of such sub-group analyses.
As an illustration, the reduction in new infections seen in this group may well have resulted from the following possibility.
People who take their pills consistently are more likely to use condoms consistently and in general are more attentive to risk. So if it were possible to do a subgroup analysis of people who adhered to placebo we might conclude that the placebo also works – (and it's cheaper).
This is not so fanciful.
"In one study [3], those who adhered to the trial drug (clofibrate) had reduced
mortality; but those who adhered to the placebo pill had the same reduction in mortality".
This is from:
Coronary Drug Project Research Group. Influence of adherence to treatment
and response of cholesterol on mortality in the coronary drug
project. Engl J Med 1980;303:1038-1041
A classic example of the pitfalls of subgroup analysis is what it demonstrated in ISIS-2, a trial examining the effects of aspirin after myocardial infarction. A subgroup analysis showed it was of benefit to all except people who were either Libras or Geminis.
Maybe Truvada taken consistently can reduce new infections by over 90%; maybe not. There was no basis for the investigators and commentators to present the first possibility with such overwhelming confidence.
We must accept that a 44% reduction in new infections is at this time the most reliable estimate of Truvada's efficacy as PrEP. Although, the confidence interval , a measure of reliability, was wide.
We have an intervention that can reduce new infections by 44%, if taken in conjunction with a program of counselling, condom use, and monthly tests for HIV infection. That is the benefit. What about the down side?
The two most important are the development of resistance of HIV to the component drugs of Truvada and the toxicity of the drugs.
The utility in treating HIV infection of FTC and tenofovir – Truvada's component drugs is lost if the virus becomes resistant to the drugs. Moreover, some mutations conferring resistance to these drugs can also affect sensitivity to some other drugs. The danger of resistance, and even cross resistance to other drugs developing when Truvada is used as PrEP is not a trivial concern. Truvada used as PrEP provides a suboptimal dose in treating established HIV infections. This is precisely the situation in which resistance is likely to develop. There were in fact two instances of developed resistance in the iPrEx trial in individuals who became infected, but undetected before the trial began.
Resistant viruses in the community are a danger to all, so the risk of generating resistance is not confined to the individual taking Truvada as PrEP.
What about safety?
The claim in many reports that Truvada is without significant toxicity is also misleading.
Maybe poor adherence has some bearing on the lack of significant toxicity.
A median of 1.2 years exposure to Truvada can tell us little about cumulative and long term effects. Experience with long term use of Truvada in HIV infected people makes concern about toxicity realistic. Renal toxicity, sometimes severe occurs not uncommonly. It's mostly but not always reversible on stopping the drug. Thinning of bones, osteopenia and osteoporosis is also seen. There are additional adverse effects associated with the drugs.
There were small abnormalities in some parameters measuring kidney function among those treated with Truvada. Although these changes were reversible on stopping the drug, the fact that they were seen at all is a reason for great concern about the effects of longer term treatment.
With the experience we have gained from longer term treatment with Truvada, it is disingenuous to stress its overall safety from just 1.2 years of very inconsistent use.
It's important to point out that for HIV infected individuals, the benefits of treatment with Truvada far outweigh the risks. For uninfected individuals, an entirely different risk benefit analysis must be made.
Despite the disappointing results of iPrEx, PrEP is important.
Why is PrEP important?
There are at least two important reasons.
PrEP could protect receptive partners in sexual intercourse, both men and women, who are unable to ensure that a condom is used by their partner and for a variety of reasons are unable to refuse sex . The best and most respectful way of addressing this would be to find ways to empower these individuals; in some way providing them with the means to protect themselves could be seen to also have the effect of perpetuating their subjugation and abuse.
But there are women and men who need protection now and providing them with a means to prevent infection that they can control is vital. This can go hand in hand with working to empower them and helping them to try to ameliorate or leave abusive relationships.
Sex is one of life's joys. It is vitally important to the human experience.
Condoms can be a barrier to intimacy which for many is the most essential aspect of sexual intercourse, for both receptive and insertive partners. So recommending the use of condoms without acknowledging the significant obstacle they may present to a fulfilling sexual experience is a real problem. Pleasure is part of that fulfilment and for some insertive partners condoms are a significant impediment to experiencing it. A fully effective and safe means of pre-exposure prophylaxis may also allow the removal of a barrier to conception.
But people are different; for example some individuals have found that condoms can increase intimacy in the reassurance they provide concerning their and their partners safety.
We should never minimize or trivialize the difficulties condoms can present. We should also keep in mind that their use is the most effective means of preventing sexual transmission of HIV.
Their use will remain necessary in order to remain uninfected until we are free from HIV or a safe an effective PrEP method can be found.
These considerations, a prevention method that the receptive partner can control, allow conception and remove an impediment to full sexual expression are some reasons to work towards finding a safe and effective form of PrEP.
Truvada unfortunately has not proved to be sufficiently effective and safe.
A few words about prevention education and condoms:
The consistent use of condoms is the most effective means to prevent sexual transmission of HIV.
PrEP proponents agree but many go on to say that people just don't use condoms consistently. This is an attitude that has apparently concluded that prevention education does not work, and more importantly, cannot work.
But how can one conclude that it cannot work when there has been so little of it? This has some analogy with the claims made for the efficacy of Truvada. It works, if you take the pills
If prevention education has been a failure, it's not because it doesn't work, but because we have not provided it well enough. There has been too little and most has not been properly targeted.
Proper targeting to those most at risk is critical. I have written about this. We need more and better prevention education.
The CDC now tells us that the group at greatest risk by far in the US is men who have sex with men. Nothing has changed except the ethnic distribution, so why are they only telling this to us now? For over twenty years we were told that AIDS was an equal opportunity infection making prevention education targeted to those at greatest risk even more difficult.
It's only now, 25 years too late, that the CDC appears to recognize the urgency of providing prevention education to gay men.
Neglect of properly targeted prevention education, with encouragement for condom use and continuing support to sustain their use helped to allow the spread of HIV into African American communities in plain view while millions were spent on "America Responds to AIDS" a vacuous prevention message.
Similarly we have known for years that in the US younger men who have sex with men are at particular risk. We know where to target prevention messages, but we don't it well enough.
We know that highly targeted prevention education, when crafted by the communities at greatest risk can work. This was demonstrated in the earliest years of the epidemic in San Francisco and New York City.
In 1982 when Michael Callen, Richard Berkowitz and I first recommended condom use to gay men in New York City, we stressed that in doing so it was important to celebrate sex, recognizing that for some individuals condom use, or perhaps more precisely, HIV, could present a barrier to its full expression. We have come far in freeing ourselves from long standing societal constraints that for too many have stood in the way of a fulfilling sexual experience burdening it instead with guilt. It's important to take care in providing continuing support for condom use and recognize that for many they do get in the way. But it's really HIV that's getting in the way, and consistent condom use can help to bring it to an end.
Finding conditions where sex without condoms is safe is important. On the showing of iPrEx – despite its ecstatic reception, PrEP unfortunately is not yet ready.
At the moment consistent condom use is the best protection there is.
The often uncritical response to iPrEx should not persuade anyone that Truvada is a safe and effective alternative.
iPrEx is a large and complicated study. The investigators deserve the highest praise for completing this phase and having provided a result. It may not be the result so many hoped for. But providing clear information is a major advance.
Categories: iPrEx pre-exposure prophylaxis trial Tags: AIDS prevention, condoms, HIV, HIV prevention education, HIV/AIDS, iPrEx, Pre exposure prophylaxis, PrEP
AIDS pathogenesis: HIV disease and Positive feedback: An additional comment.
August 31, 2010 sonnabendj	Leave a comment
This blog more or less duplicates that at the aidsperspective.net site, explained in the "about" page above.
HIV Disease and Positive Feedback. An additional comment.
AUGUST 31ST 2010
A previous post focussed on the positive feedback interaction between HIV replication and immune activation. HIV replication and immune activation reciprocally enhance each other.
While HIV infection is an essential cause of the immune activation that's characteristic of HIV disease, there are other factors that also contribute to it. In that post as well as in the blog I write on the POZ magazine website, I described some of these additional factors that can add to immune activation. As noted, viruses of the herpesvirus family, cytomegalovirus (CMV) in particular are the most important of these worldwide, while in parts of Africa certain endemic infections may be of great significance in contributing to immune activation.
Since sustained immune activation, involving both innate and adaptive immunity is at the heart of the pathogenesis of HIV disease an understanding of how it is perpetuated is critical.
Evidence for activation of innate immunity was noted in 1981, the year that AIDS was first reported, in the detection of large amounts of alpha interferon in the circulation of patients. We even knew then that interferon alpha and gamma could induce an enzyme, indole 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), (IDO was known to be responsible for the inhibition of toxoplasma gondii by depletion of tryptophan in cells treated with gamma interferon) but we did not know then that this enzyme could contribute to the loss of T lymphocytes. Another observation of historical interest is that even before AIDS was first reported in 1981, interferon was known to preferentially inhibit CD4 lymphocyte proliferation in mixed lymphocyte culture.
Since immune activation and its effects, including inflammation, are harmful if sustained, there are mechanisms that can dampen it.
But in HIV disease, immune activation persists with continued deleterious consequences.
The reason I'm revisiting this now is that there is a question that continues to be bothersome.
HIV disease is not the only infection associated with long standing immune activation.
Several endemic infections in Africa are also associated with sustained immune activation, certainly not all – some even have a dampening effect on immune responses. TB is another example of an infection associated with chronic immune activation. In none of these conditions is there such a profound loss of CD4 lymphocytes as in HIV disease. While individuals with active pulmonary TB have been reported to have lower CD4 counts than healthy individuals, the numbers were well above 500.
Is the difference between sustained immune activation associated with HIV and that associated with other chronic infections in HIV negative individuals a matter of degree – is it a quantitative difference?
Could the mechanisms that dampen and check immune activation be impaired in HIV disease? These mechanisms include the secretion of cytokines that have anti-inflammatory properties, such as IL-10, IL-13, and TGF-beta, among others. Specialized immune system cells can also dampen immune activation. Tregs, a subset of T lymphocytes, have such a dampening effect. Although there are conflicting reports on the relationship of Tregs to HIV disease, it is known that HIV targets some of these particular T lymphocytes.
This graphic comes from my earlier post on positive feedback characteristics of HIV disease.
In this diagram HIV pathogenesis is represented by a circular process moving in a clockwise direction. It is started by HIV infection and can be propelled by a positive feedback association between HIV replication with immune activation. Immune activation is reinforced by CMV, and in certain settings, by some endemic infections. This is represented by the + sign in the diagram. Immune activation is retarded by those influences that dampen the immune response, including anti-inflammatory cytokines and Tregs, represented by the – sign in the diagram.
Here is a revised version of this diagram:
HIV disease progression is represented as moving clockwise in a circle, reinforced by sources of immune activation other than HIV and retarded by Tregs and other mechanisms that dampen immune responses. Tregs act as brakes, but HIV can directly make the brakes less effective.
Could critical differences between HIV disease and other infectious causes of long standing immune activation where CD4 numbers are relatively preserved, be the preferential targeting of Tregs by HIV and a different pattern of cytokine secretion?
I wonder if this revised representation of HIV disease lends itself to a more formal modelling process.
In this particular model a disease process is represented by a circular motion in a clockwise direction, with forces that both propel and retard it. Some predictions can be made.
The degree of immune activation at the time of HIV seroconversion would favour more rapid HIV disease progression. The set point – the level from which CD4 lymphocytes decline following an acute HIV infection, would be lower, and the subsequent rate of CD4 decline higher when HIV infection occurs in a person where there already is a higher degree of immune activation, compared to an individual where this is not the case. There already is some evidence in support of this possibility.
It's well established that HIV disease progresses more rapidly with increasing age. Could an explanation for this be that immune activation increases with age – indeed, it's been suggested that immune activation contributes to the aging process.
HIV disease progresses more rapidly in individuals with active TB. CMV viremia was noted to carry an adverse prognostic significance in HIV disease very early in the epidemic. There are but two examples, but there are many more of of a more rapid course of HIV disease in the setting of other infections caused by bacteria, protozoa, viruses and helminthes. Some are referred to in a previous post.
Are Treg numbers at seroconversion and for a period immediately afterwards related to subsequent disease progression?
Could treatment with anti CMV agents during acute HIV infection retard subsequent disease progression?
There already is some evidence that treatment of HIV during acute infection might slow the subsequent course of HIV disease.
The utility of any model of a disease process lies in its ability to provide a common explanation for disparate observations as well as to make predictions that can be tested by an analysis of available data or by experimentation.
Viewing HIV disease as a process with a positive feedback interaction between HIV replication and immune activation with forces that both enhance and retard this interconnection, provides a useful descriptive framework as well as testable predictions.
Categories: AIDS pathogenesis: HIV disease and Positive feedback: An additional comment. Tags: Age, Age HIVB, CMV, HIV, HIV disease, HIV pathogenesis, HIV/AIDS, immune activation, Pathogenesis, Tregs
USPHS guidelines:We need reliable evidence to justify an earlier start of anti-retroviral therapy.
May 19, 2010 sonnabendj	Leave a comment
The most recent revision of the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) guidelines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS recommended initiation of anti-retroviral treatment at a CD4 count of 500.
This recommendation was made in the absence of evidence from a prospective randomized clinical trial. Instead, evidence of inferior quality was relied on.
Much is at stake for HIV infected individuals. The point in the course of HIV infection when treatment is initiated can affect the duration and quality of life.
Rather than issuing interim guidelines pending the completion of a prospective randomized trial the guidelines committee has jumped the gun, relying on evidence of inferior quality.
In the following article, John Falkenberg reminds us of the harm that has resulted from basing recommendations on observational cohort studies.
John Falkenberg New York, NY
Doctors and patients always have the right to choose treatment that is not based on data generated from well-designed clinical trials. However, I worry when treatment guidelines are based on cohort studies or anecdote, and it's alarming when the city of San Francisco and Project Inform endorse that practice.
No study is cited more often than NA-ACCORD, an observational cohort study, to support early antiretroviral therapy. Besides the many historical examples of harm caused by treatment guidelines based on observational studies (see the Nurses' Health Study, below), NA-ACCORD suffers from more than the self selection bias of observational studies: a large percentage of the deferred treatment group, approximately 45%, did not initiate therapy and/or did not have a decline in CD4 counts. How can those findings be extrapolated to clinical practice? In addition, the early treatment group may have had incomparable medical care. For example, were lipids more carefully monitored in that group resulting in more aggressive use of statins, a class of drug with pleiotropic effects that include improving endothelial function, enhancing the stability of atherosclerotic plaques, decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation, and inhibiting the thrombogenic response. These drugs have demonstrated morbidity and mortality benefits in clinical settings where lipid levels are normal.
The history of HIV treatment guidelines is an excellent reminder of the risk of formulating guidelines based on observational studies and anecdotal evidence. However, HIV is not the best example. There are clinical settings where "more compelling" cohort data using medications considered relatively safe served as the basis for treatment guidelines that ultimately were proven wrong at a significant cost.
I think the best example pertains to the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women. There were many anecdotal, observational and retrospective reports of the many benefits of HRT, but the Nurses' Health Study was the flagship. The Nurses Heath Study was a case control, observational study of over 120,000 nurses, including over 20,000 who were post menopausal. As the follow up continued for years, an increasing number of women reached menopause, and various health variables were monitored and reported. The most striking "conclusion" of this study was that the relative risk of death was 0.63 in HRT users vs. non users. The risk of major coronary artery disease among HRT users was 0.60 when compared to those who never used HRT. Both of these findings were statistically significant. These data were broadly reported in medical journals, and professional meetings. The data were added to the HRT prescribing information and aggressively promoted by the pharmaceutical industry, particularly the manufacturer of Premarin (American Home Products, renamed Wyeth, recently acquired by Pfizer), the most widely prescribed HRT.
There was huge resistance to conducting a prospective randomized controlled trial in this population. "It denies the placebo-controlled group the protective heart benefits of HRT." "It is unethical to randomize people who would clearly benefit from HRT to placebo." "No one would enroll in this trial considering what we already know about the benefits of HRT in this population." Despite the criticism, the Women's Health Initiative, a prospective randomized controlled study of HRT in postmenopausal women was conducted. In July 2002 the study was halted early due to a statistically significant excess risk of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer in those receiving HRT versus those on placebo; a finding that literally rocked the world of HRT.
More recently, long-term treatment recommendations in diabetes were debunked by results from the first well designed, randomized controlled study (coincidently named ACCORD), with cardiovascular clinical endpoints. Using multiple medications for intensive glucose lowering and intensive blood pressure reduction did not reduce cardiovascular events but only increased adverse events. Once again, guidelines formulated without data derived from controlled clinical trials did more harm than good.
There is a lot at stake here and I fear that this is déjà vu all over again. The NA-ACCORD results are compelling and generate a hypothesis that needs to be tested, but the clinical trial has yet to be performed and the evidence is absent. I find it difficult to understand why those of us who have lived during decades of this epidemic, who have seen those living with HIV experience a wide range in the rate of disease progression, and who have seen the rise and fall of early antiretroviral therapy, do not demand more. I'm shocked by both the city of San Francisco and Project Inform.
I cannot claim to know the motivation behind the current push for early treatment without evidence. However, I do know the pressure felt by the pharmaceutical industry as they approach a patent cliff with little in the advanced research pipeline and significant overcapacity. It is not coincidental that lobbying efforts have been stepped up in an economic climate where value driven medicine is a new priority. That lobbying includes an aggressive push to eliminate informed consent for HIV testing and a push for early treatment. And, here we are with major public health agencies and CBO's jumping on the bandwagon without the evidence
Categories: USPHS guidelines: We need reliable evidence to justify an earlier start of anti-retroviral therapy. May, 2010 Tags: AIDS, AIDS treatment, Clinical trials, HIV, HIV/AIDS, John Falkenberg, starting antiviral therapy, When to start treatment
We need reliable evidence to justify an earlier start of anti-retroviral therapy. May, 2009
Treatment of HIV/AIDS. The revised USPHS guidelines. May, 2010
The revised USPHS guidelines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS
Guidelines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS were first issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in 1998. They have undergone numerous revisions since then; the most recent was in December 2009.
The first guidelines were issued shortly after potent antiviral medications became available. We knew very little about how best to use these drugs at that time, and with only a few years experience our knowledge of their adverse effects was understandably limited.
Perhaps the only reliable information we then had was that individuals with fewer than 200 CD4 lymphocytes received a life saving benefit from their use.
Despite such limited information the panel that had been convened to write the guidelines made firm recommendations for the use of antiviral drugs in groups of patients for whom evidence of a net benefit was lacking.
Even in the absence of experience with the newer antiviral agents, at least two probable problems associated with their use could have been anticipated in 1997. The propensity of just about any microorganism to develop resistance to antimicrobial agents was no mystery. Nor was it a surprise that adverse reactions to new drugs appeared as they were used for longer periods.
As might have been anticipated healthier HIV infected individuals have not infrequently had to deal with both of these problems.
Why then did the first HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines panel not propose and encourage the conduct of a randomized prospective clinical trial to answer the question of whether immediate or deferred treatment with antiviral drugs could or could not prolong life and improve its quality or made no difference apart from cost?
Since the problems that were to arise could have been anticipated, if not their extent, the guidelines committee must have accepted that whatever evidence existed was sufficient to reassure them that there would be a net benefit to starting treatment at 500 CD4 lymphocytes.
The most recent revision of the DHHS guidelines now propose, as the first guidelines did, that treatment be initiated at a CD4 count of 500. A prospective randomized trial that directly addresses the question of when treatment is best initiated has yet to be completed. In the absence of information from such a trial the committee has relied on evidence from some large retrospective observational studies.
In the next post John Falkenberg writes about some previous experiences where advice based on results of retrospective analyses of observational data had to be reversed when the results of randomized controlled studies became available.
I believe the biggest mistake made in 1997 by the guidelines committee was in not responding to the very real possibilities of dangers associated with early treatment initiation by encouraging the completion of a prospective randomized trial, such as START, that could by now have reliably provided an answer to the question of whether immediate or deferred treatment is better or worse or makes no difference that is, apart from cost.
It's not the benefits of early treatment that are in question. Of course there are benefits, but the question we need an answer to is when in the course of HIV disease the benefits of treatment outweigh the risks.
Long term exposure to antiretroviral drugs can have harmful effects. It can take many years to recognize some of these adverse effects. For example we learned only in the last few months that under certain circumstances neurocognitive function improved in some people who stopped antiviral drugs (ACTG 5170).
So the challenge is to find out how best to use the drugs. Put another way, we must find ways to safely minimize exposure to the drugs, which until we have drugs without significant adverse effects, is what determining the optimal time to start treatment is all about. We don't know if a person deferring treatment until a CD4 count of 350 will or will not live longer with an overall better or worse quality of life than someone starting at 800 or even 500 CD4s.
We do know that at 350 CD4s, benefits of treatment far outweigh risks. But no matter what NIH guidelines committee members may feel, we do not yet have the most reliable evidence that benefits of treatment will outweigh risks when starting at higher numbers.
The wording of the USPHS guidelines is such that depending on whose vote one goes with, I suppose might even be interpreted to mean a recommendation for every HIV positive individual to receive treatment irrespective of CD4 count.
A letter written to the DHHS panel in 1997 suggesting that a randomized prospective trial be encouraged to provide guidance for individuals with greater than 200 CD4 lymphocytes remained unanswered although received.
Sadly the repeated changes to the guidelines since their first appearance in 1998 appear to indicate a retreat from evidence-based recommendations. Maybe this should be stated as a retreat from attempting to find the most reliable evidence on which to base recommendations. The guidelines panel go to great lengths to reassure us that their recommendations are indeed evidence based.
But as they recognize, the quality of evidence can vary. They also recognize that evidence of the highest quality is derived from the results of prospective randomized trials. Yet not only do they not vigorously encourage the completion of such trials, their recommendations actually inhibit enrolment into START which is such a trial.
Unfortunately the DHHS recommendations while not binding have a huge influence. Remarkably they are even regarded by some as setting an ethical standard, so that fears have been expressed that enrolment into START might be considered unethical as the current guidelines revision recommend starting treatment at 500 CD 4 lymphocytes.
Thirteen years after the first guidelines were issued, the DHHS panel has now made revisions that continues to threaten enrolment into a randomized controlled trial that will provide clear guidance to HIV positive individuals and their doctors about when to initiate antiviral therapy.
Surely, when we recognize that reliable evidence is lacking to inform a very important clinical decision, is it not our obligation to seek the evidence, rather than settle for the uncertainties associated with evidence of inferior quality? This is not only for the benefit of our patients but also to affirm that our stated respect for evidence-based recommendations is more than lip service.
At this time the DHHS guidelines are the only ones that recommend a start to treatment at 500 CD4 lymphocytes.
The DHHS guidelines have been of benefit to people with HIV/AIDS. But on the issue of when to start antiviral therapy they have not best served the interests of HIV positive individuals.
We need a randomized controlled trial to answer this question, not the votes of a committee.
I believe that many health care providers would welcome the opportunity to be able to present an option to their patients with greater than 350 CD4s, to enrol in a study such as START.
At the end of the day, determining when it's best to start is not something you vote on. It's something so important that you nail it down with a trial such as START.
Categories: Treatment of HIV/AIDS. The revised USPHS guidelines. May, 2010 Tags: Clinical trials, DHHS guidelines, HIV, HIV treatment, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines, Treatment guidelines, USPHS HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines, When to start treatment, Whern to start anti HIV therapy
HIV Prevention Education and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Against HIV. August 2009
Since my last post on this subject I have heard a variety of different views as well as discussed the issue with several interested individuals.
As a result I have come to see the issue somewhat differently; I suppose I could just amend my last post, but it's better to leave it as it is and describe the differences in how I now view PrEP efficacy trials after having heard several different descriptions of ways in which these are seen.
I listened to presentations at two conferences during the last few weeks. A teleconference organized by CHAMP, a community group, and one organized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). These conferences attempted to engage and inform individuals about PrEP. As a consequence I realize that I was mistaken in stating so categorically that efficacy trials of PrEP, unlike safety trials, could not be undertaken in human research subjects. However I do not think that if all the ethical requirements are met, that is to provide condoms, consistent counseling and sterile injecting equipment, a generalizable result will be obtained indicating that it is an effective prevention strategy. Of course I don't know this, and was wrong in my view that trials of PrEP efficacy should not proceed.
The most important concern with the way the promotion of PrEP, at least as a concept, is being pursued is the neglect of encouraging prevention education.
Prevention education remains the most important tool we actually have, as opposed to theoretical and unproven approaches. The latter include PrEP, and the test and treat every infected person proposal. We absolutely know that in principle prevention education, including the use of condoms can work. It worked in curbing the increase in the epidemic among gay men in the late 1980s .
The principle is thus established, admittedly without application to those who have no control over the use of condoms by the male partner. This group is therefore in need of prevention strategies they can control themselves, and PrEP may be the only realistic possibility.
For everyone else, the sexual transmission of HIV can be controlled by the use of condoms, even if not with 100% efficacy. We have a powerful tool in our hands, and if there are new infections, this is certainly not an indication that it does not work well enough. It indicates that it is an activity that receives insufficient support, or it may well be that some of those doing it are just not very good at it. Maybe there is little societal support for HIV prevention education, even little support from individuals at risk who could use condoms but would like not to.
Unfortunately, from what I have experienced, the several groups supporting and promoting PrEP seemed to have given little thought to prevention education in presenting this intervention to stakeholders. . They may be diligent in the context of efficacy trials, in ensuring the availability of condoms and counselling to participants.
But what seems to be missed is this: Unless the promotion of PrEP is accompanied by very clear advocacy of prevention education with condom use, PrEP can be seen as an alternative to safer sex practices as now recommended.
This cannot be the intention, but from comments I have heard after the CHAMP and CDC conferences this seems to be a dangerous conclusion that some have drawn.
The explanation of the utility of PrEP must be accompanied by a strengthening of prevention education to avoid this unfortunate misinterpretation. The very promotion of the concept of PrEP in the way it has so far been done can actually be seen as an undermining of condom use. A possible alternative to condoms is presented. One can only hope that in the absence of accompanying prevention education there will not be instances sex with available antiretroviral drugs rather than with condoms.
Prevention education is in a dismal state as it is, and we should be aware of any activity that can undermine it further, unless care is taken in how it is presented.
I have commented in other posts that in HIV medicine a one-size-fits-all approach seems to be the norm. Admittedly it's cheaper to deal with populations rather than individuals. A single size that fits everybody is even cheaper than providing small, medium or large varieties, let alone customizing the size to fit individual needs.
So in HIV medicine, treatment recommendations have been made for all infected individuals, without considering the rate of disease progression, and many other characteristics applicable to any given person.
So it is with PrEP. Its relevance is different to different constituencies.
At one extreme, for those who have no power to control the use of a condom by their male partner, PrEP may be the only realistic possibility of avoiding infection with HIV. PrEP to these individuals is obviously of vital importance.
In fact it is so important that it would be useful even if its efficacy, if this can be demonstrated, proves to be inferior to the consistent use of condoms. Such individuals have no alternative.
The situation of people who are perfectly capable of consistent condom use is different.
The power of the receptive partner in this case is the power to say no. No condom, no sex. Both partners have an effective means of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV. There is no need for PrEP to prevent infection, except that some may welcome an additional layer of protection.
There are others whose hopes for PrEP are different. The desire to conceive is one.
Yet others hope that PrEP will make sex without condoms safe with respect to HIV transmission. In this case the efficacy of PrEP would have to be known to be at least equal to the consistent use of condoms (and free from toxicity and affordable). Of course individuals decide to take risks that involve danger to themselves only, but full information should be available, and certainly we should take care not to disseminate material that can mislead, even if only by implication. We do not have full information on the efficacy of PrEP, and I can see no way of testing its efficacy without the use of condoms. But it is here that we need to take great care not to mislead, even by implication, that PrEP is as safe as using condoms unless in the unlikely event, it is actually proven to be so.
Even a modest degree of efficacy is better than nothing for those who are unable to avoid sex with a partner who cannot be relied on to use a condom. There actually is nothing else to protect them.
A modest degree of efficacy is insufficient for those who are well able to refuse to have sex if a condom is not used. That's my opinion, and I would believe that of many others, but as always risking harm to oneself only, is an individual choice; our obligation is not to mislead, and ensure that full and accurate information is available.
So, PrEP is of undoubted importance to individuals who have no control over the use of a condom by their male partner. Apart from the female condom, it is the insertive partner who has to use a condom. All the receptive partner has as protection now, is the ability to just say no. We recognize that there are situations when this is not possible, and no practical remedy is available to change this.
Of course there are other situations when it is possible to attempt a change. If an individual just cannot say no to a partner who cannot be relied on to use a condom because he or she is ignorant of safer sex practices this is something we must try to remedy with intensive prevention education. This will include imparting the knowledge of the lapses in judgement that can accompany the use of drugs or alcohol.
Getting away from the one-size-fits-all approach, there probably will be some individual situations in which PrEP, even if less effective than consistent condom use may be considered. An example noted by one commentator is when condom use may be associated with sexual dysfunction.
Prevention education with consistent condom use is the best available means we have to prevent the transmission of HIV. Prevention education should be strengthened and care taken not to undermine it.
Where individuals have no control over the use of a condom by their male partners we should do what we can to provide them with the means to protect themselves, and PrEP may be all we have to work on at present.
Others may look to PrEP as a means to avoid the use of condoms. The price of failure seems to be an extraordinary high one, considering that condom use is known to be highly effective in preventing HIV transmission.
There are people who need PrEP. There are also people perfectly able to use condoms but who want PrEP.
In promoting PrEP studies we must take great care not to undermine efforts at prevention education, even by implication. Promotion of PrEP must go hand in hand with promotion of HIV prevention education.
Categories: HIV Prevention Education and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Against HIV. August 2009 Tags: HIV, HIV prevention, HIV prevention education, HIV/AIDS, Joseph Sonnabend, Pre exposure prophylaxis, PrEP
A: Pathogenesis of HIV disease
AIDS Pathogenesis: HIV disease has characteristics of positive feedback systems
Endemic Infections in Africa have everything to do with HIV/AIDS and are a long neglected therapeutic target.
Herpes Viruses and HIV: Some early History and a Bit about Safe Sex
HIV Infection in HIV Antibody Negative Individuals
Interferon and HIV
HIV disease and alpha interferon.
Interferon: Another historical digression.
B: Prevention of HIV/AIDS
HIV Treatment as Prevention. March 2010
iPrEx pre-exposure prophylaxis trial
PrEP: Pre exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection. August 2009
Treatment as prevention. Protecting individual autonomy
C: Treatment of HIV disease
HIV Treatment: There is a role for intermittent therapy. July, 2009
The SMART Study
The not so SMART studt; a postscript
The not so SMART study
There is a place for intermittent therapy
USPHS guidelines: We need reliable evidence to justify an earlier start of anti-retroviral therapy. May, 2010
When is it best to start antiretroviral treatment: an update April 2009
F: Ethical Issues
Treatment as Prevention: Protecting individual autonomy. May 2010
G: Miscellaneous


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Authenticity and Artifice in Rock and Roll: 'And I Guess that I Just Don't Care'
Attias, Bernardo Alexander
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/164273
Musicians, journalists and academics often hold up the Velvet Underground as the paragon of authenticity in rock music, and the band indeed portrayed itself this way from the outset. While much ink has been spilled explaining the original and authentic genius that is the Velvet Underground, an equally compelling case can be made that the band's first album marked a turn towards insincerity and inauthenticity in popular music. This project emerges from the tension between these identities. A close textual analysis of The Velvet Underground & Nico functions as an entry into theoretical arguments about truth and meaning in popular music. I contend that much of the discourse about authenticity in popular music is hampered by the assumption that artifice and authenticity are incompatible. I propose that we instead examine these discourses as themselves signifiers that can be manipulated by artists. The Velvets' first album produces meaning precisely through this dialectical tension in a manner made possible only through its mediation in the commodity form.
Name: 2016_VelvetUnderground.pdf
Description: Full article pdf
Attias, Bernardo Alexander [10]
Collection of scholarship submitted by Dr. Bernardo Attias, Department of Communication Studies
Faculty Publications [3630]
Collection of scholarship submitted by CSUN faculty
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The grumpy, grouchy, Yule-hating Grinch plots to ruin the Whos of Whoville's Christmas. Can he steal their holiday spirit by stealing their holiday treats? Perhaps Christmas means a little bit more than just presents and candy.
When Santa is put out of commission, deli owner Murray Kleiner reluctantly agrees to take his place, putting a spin on Christmas that's all his own. And with the help of a pushy elf and an eager-to-believe young boy, Murray finds that even though he's not big enough to fill Santa's suit, he's got more than enough heart to get the job done.
I challenged the students to think of one person they could give a gift that would not cost any money. We had Christmas light bulbs to write down the idea. It was very heartwarming to see the spirit of giving in our students at Riverview.