AIDS study recommends earlier treatment

by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — A new study suggests AIDS patients should be started on antiretroviral therapies sooner than current guidelines call for.

The study was authored in part by University of Minnesota researcher Timothy Schacker. He and colleagues from around the country found that the AIDS virus damages lymph tissues that are home to the immune system so thoroughly that they lose their ability to produce infection-fighting T-cells.

"I don't think there's going to be a magic bullet, that says start therapy early and we're going to restore immunity; I think there's going to be multiple things we're going to use to get immunity restored as fully as possible for somebody's who's got HIV infection," Schacker said.

Another possibility he's working on is anti-inflammatory therapies that might prevent extensive damage to the lymph tissues.