Medical News Today -- A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that starting HIV-positive people on antiretroviral treatment earlier than what current guidelines recommend could reduce the risk of death, the Wall Street Journal’s “Health Blog” reports (Goldstein, “Health Blog,” Wall Street Journal, 4/1). Researchers in two separate analyses examined the medical records of about 17,000 HIV-positive people (Waters, Bloomberg, 4/1). They looked at participants’ CD4+ T cell count, starting with 8,000 participants in the first analysis. The researchers compared patients who began antiretroviral treatment within six months of receiving a CD4 count between 351 and 500 with those who delayed starting treatment until after their CD4 count was 350 or less. The patients that delayed treatment had a 69% higher risk of death during the follow-up period.
