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With EACS release, all international HIV treatment guidelines agree on when to start – for the first time since 2006
Gus Cairns, 2015-10-26 10:30:00
The new European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) HIV clinical guidelines, released last week at the 15th European AIDS Conference, bring Europe into line with the rest of the world by recommending HIV treatment upon diagnosis for all patients.
This is the first time since 2006 that all internationally-written guidelines have agreed on their ‘when to start’ recommendations. As a measure of what has changed since then, in that year the guidleines by EACS, the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the International AIDS Society USA (IAS-USA) and the British HIV Association all agreed that treatment was only strongly recommended for people with CD4 counts below 200 cells/mm3. They did not recommend treatment for people with CD4 counts over 350 cells/mm3, and recommended it only with caution for people with CD4 counts between 200 and 350 cells/mm3. Now, in line with all other guidelines, EACS recommend that treatment is offered to all people diagnosed with HIV, though they still reserve a category of “strong recommendation” for people diagnosed with CD4 counts below 350 cells/mm3.
“When to start was the easiest part to write”, commented Dr José Gatell, the Conference co-chair, referring to the START study, which showed that treatment is beneficial at all CD4 counts.
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