No evidence of posttreatment control after early initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

Abstract

As part of a retrospective analysis of 616 individuals followed from incident HIV infection for up to 18 years as part of the San Diego Primary Infection Cohort, we found 16 individuals who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) within the first 4 months of infection and subsequently interrupted ART after being virologically suppressed for a median of 1.75 years. No individual maintained sustained virologic control after interruption of ART, even when treatment was started during the earliest stages of HIV infection. Median time to HIV-RNA rebound after ART interruption was 0.9 months (range: 0.2-6.4 months).