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Carlo-Federico Perno, Alessandro Cozzi-Lepri, Claudia Balotta, Antonella d'Arminio Monforte, Reply, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 185, Issue 9, 1 May 2002, Pages 1376–1377, https://doi.org/10.1086/340128
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Extract
To the Editor—We read with interest the comments by Frater et al. [1] about our recent publication [2] and the results of their study regarding the efficacy of combined antiretroviral therapy in patients carrying non-B human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) subtypes [3]. Other cohort studies have evaluated the association between secondary mutations in HIV protease before initiation of antiretroviral therapy and therapeutic outcome, with discrepant results [4–6]. We therefore agree that more evidence is needed to support the view that widespread resistance testing should be performed for drug-naive patients, to guide the choice of initial therapy.
Additional data would be especially useful for antiretroviralnaive patients infected with non-B subtypes of HIV, in whom many secondary mutations are naturally occurring polymorphisms, as we mentioned in the Discussion section of our article [2, pp. 987–989]. Beyond these needs, which have to be addressed by the scientific community, we feel that some points raised by Frater et al. [1] merit attention for their practical implications and suggest a critical revision of the data available.
