LAZARUS NEVER had a Visa card charged to the hilt. Or a life insurance policy that was sold at maybe 60% of its face value. Or the prospect of going back to work while having to maintain a complex regimen of multiple antiretroviral drugs.
For clinicians, politicians, and patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the era of life-prolonging treatment with protease inhibitors has become as much a cause of uncertainty as it is of celebration.
Even though optimism about powerful new drug combinations has been widespread, "we are on the threshold of a new set of problems with these treatment modes," said Willie Brown Jr, mayor of San Francisco, Calif, where a multidisciplinary group of people with HIV, clinicians, and social and legal services workers met last month for the 9th National AIDS Update Conference.
Back to Work Issues
For many patients who have had success with combination therapy