HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents Releases Statement Regarding the START and TEMPRANO Trial Results

The HHS Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents has released a statement announcing a change in the rating of the Panel’s recommendation on initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) based on the recently published results from the START and TEMPRANO trials. Both of these randomized controlled trials demonstrated greater clinical benefits when ART is initiated in asymptomatic HIV-infected patients who started on ART at CD4 counts >500 cells/mm^3 instead of waiting until CD4 counts decline. Based on these results, the Panel’s recommendation remains the same, that ART is recommended for all patients, regardless of pre-treatment CD4 count, but the strength and evidence has been changed to AI for all patients (i.e., strong recommendation, based on randomized controlled trials).   For more information, please see the Panel Statement.