Maintaining Viral Suppression in HIV: Insights on Switching Treatments and Emerging Agents
Sharon Walmsley, CM, MD, FRCPC discusses the importance of maintaining viral suppression in HIV through strategic treatment switches and highlights insights on promising emerging therapeutic agents.
Episodes
April 30th 2025EP. 1: HIV Viral Suppression: Clinical Significance and Impact on Patient Outcomes
A panelist discusses how viral suppression in HIV patients means achieving undetectable virus levels (below 50 or 20 copies per ml), which prevents immune system damage and transmission to others, summarized as "undetectable equals untransmissible" (U=U).
April 30th 2025EP. 2: Changing Patient Demographics in HIV and Impacts of Polypharmacy on Treatment
A panelist discusses how the HIV patient population has aged significantly, with the average age in their clinic now exceeding 50 years and expected to soon exceed 65 years, and how these aging patients experience more comorbidities at younger ages than the general population while their HIV becomes easier to manage with simple regimens.
May 9th 2025EP. 3: Phase 3 HIV Treatment Switch Studies: Key Findings From Recent Clinical Trials
A panelist discusses how a new drug combination of doravirine and islatravir was compared to a standard bictegravir-based therapy in patients with HIV, showing noninferiority with over 90% of patients maintaining viral suppression without excess toxicity.
May 16th 2025EP. 5: Long-Acting HIV Therapies: Real-World Data and Clinical Application
A panelist discusses how the injectable combination of cabotegravir and rilpivirine performed well in the real-world OPERA cohort, with over 95% of patients maintaining virologic suppression. However, adherence to injection schedules remains a challenge, with only 62% receiving injections on time.
May 16th 2025EP. 6: CD4 T-cell and Lymphocyte Monitoring: Clinical Significance in HIV Treatment
A panelist discusses how CD4 counts serve as measures of immune system status that typically increase by about 200 in the first year of antiretroviral therapy. Although there can be laboratory variability, these counts remain important for patient monitoring and identifying those at risk for complications.