This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on ISI (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA

Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 1999;282:226.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Potent regimens involving combinations of antiretroviral drugs have substantially reduced the incidence of opportunistic infections (OI) and extended life in people infected with HIV—leading to new questions about prophylaxis against specific OIs in such patients. Now an international group of AIDS experts convened by the US Public Health Service (USPHS) and the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) has drafted new recommendations that reflect important new data that have emerged since 1997, when the USPHS/ISDA guidelines on OI prophylaxis were last revised.

Key changes in the disease-specific recommendations include advice about discontinuing prophylaxis against certain OIs when a patient's CD4⁺ T lymphocyte count increases in response to potent antiretroviral drug combinations; recommendations concerning human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8 or Kaposi sarcoma–associated herpesvirus), and hepatitis C virus infections; changes in long-term maintenance therapy aimed at preventing recurrence of Mycobacterium avium complex and cytomegalovirus disease; and other measures.

A draft . . . [Full Text of this Article]