WASHINGTON DC, USA; 27th January 2014
The optimal management of antiretroviral therapy is key to the prevention of HIV drug resistance and critical to the clinical success of medical care. But, while viral load and genotypic resistance testing are used in most resource-rich countries, these tools are not widely available to clinicians in many highly impacted, resource-constrained countries. For this reason, the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) and the HIV Resistance Response Database Initiative (RDI) today announced they signed a Letter of Agreement (LOA) focused on helping to optimize treatment decisions to safeguard against the development of HIV drug resistance.
"The RDI's HIV Treatment Response Prediction System (HIV-TRePS) is a valuable and validated tool to help clinicians in resource-constrained settings select the medication regimens with the highest likelihood of success for their patients," said Benjamin Young, MD, PhD, IAPAC's Vice President/Chief Medical Officer. "We are thus pleased to partner with RDI to increase awareness of and expand access to this tool to our front-line HIV care providers." Representing more than 20,000 clinicians worldwide, IAPAC's mission includes strengthening the capacity of clinicians to provide comprehensive care for HIV and co-morbid conditions, as well as disseminating state-of-the-art best practices for the prevention, care, and treatment of these conditions.
Andrew Revell, PhD, Executive Director of the RDI, said, "Despite remarkable progress in HIV treatment over the last 25 years, HIV infection continues to be a formidable medical challenge, particularly in countries with limited resources, diagnostics and drugs. IAPAC has played a leading role in supporting the medical response throughout this period, with ground-breaking healthcare education, advocacy and support. We are delighted to be working with IAPAC to further improve HIV treatment and ultimately patient outcomes around the globe."
The RDI's mission is to improve the clinical management of HIV infection through the application of bioinformatics to HIV drug resistance and treatment outcome data. Over the past 11 years, the RDI has developed the world's largest database of HIV drug resistance and treatment outcome data, containing information from approximately 110,000 patients in more than 50 countries. Using these data the RDI developed the HIV-TRePS, a free online tool to support optimal treatment decision-making.
More information can be found at: http://www.hivrdi.org and http://www.iapac.org
For further information contact:
Andrew Revell (Executive Director, RDI) on +44 207 226 7314, +44 7067 126498 (mobile) or andrewrevell@hivrdi.org
Date published: 27th January 2014
